in Mali, West Africa, and the Potential for Human Infection

have been conducted in Senegal. The risk for humans to acquire relapsing fever in Mali is uncertain, as only a few human cases have been identified. Given the high incidence of malaria in Mali, and the potential to confuse the clinical diagnosis of these two diseases, we initiated studies to determine if there were endemic foci of relapsing fever spirochetes that could pose a risk for human infection. were established and characterized by multi-locus sequence typing.The potential for human tick-borne relapsing fever exists in many areas of southern Mali