Ehrlichiosis is non-communicable, rarely fatal, rickettsial disease found in the United States. It is clinically similar to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever but lacks the distinctive rash and is related to Sennetsu Fever. In the United States ehrlichiosis is caused primarily by E. chaffeensis. The development of diagnostics and vaccines for these diseases has been hampered by a lack of continuous cell lines to produce large quantities of Ehrlichia antigens. In this invention a method of growing pathogenic Ehrlichia species in the continuous monocyte-macrophage cell line DH82 has been developed.   

Inventors: Jacqueline E Dawson and Yasuko Rikihisa

CDC Reference Number: E-026-90/0

USPTO Serial Number: 

Patent Number: 5,192,679