In 1922, Hone first described human infections “closely resembling typhus fever.” Since 1926, when Maxcy successfully identified murine typhus as a distinct clinical and epidemiologic entity, and 1931, when Dyer isolated a new typhus group named Rickettsia from rats and…
Rickettsia prowazekii is the only rickettsial species that can cause devastating, naturally occurring epidemics capable of killing a substantial proportion of human populations infested with body lice. Epidemics are associated with conditions that prevent bathing and washing of clothes in…
The spotted fevers comprise a large group of tick-, mite-, and flea-borne zoonotic infections that are caused by closely related rickettsiae. These include Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), boutonneuse fever, African tick bite fever, North Asian tick typhus, lymphangitis-associated rickettsiosis,…
Key features ▪ Rickettsiae are small, obligately intracellular, Gram-negative bacteria that reside within an arthropod host (tick, flea, louse, or mite) during part of their life cycle ▪ The arthropod vector transmits the rickettsiae in its saliva or feces during…