Elucidating the Role of Rhipicephalus sanguineus (the Brown dog tick) as a Vector for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) Transmission in Arizona

Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a life-threatening disease caused by Rickettsia rickettsii, an obligately intracellular bacterium that is spread to human beings by ticks. More than a century after its first clinical description, this disease is still among the most virulent human infections identified, being potentially fatal even in previously healthy young people. The diagnosis of RMSF...

Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

R ocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a classic metazoonosis that involves both vertebrate and non-vertebrate reservoir hosts, is a seasonal disease of dogs and humans in the Americas. The clinical illness was first described among Native Americans, soldiers, and settlers in the Bitterroot River and Snake River valleys of Montana and Idaho during the late 1890s, but remained unrecognized in dog...

Questions on Mediterranean Spotted Fever a Century after Its Discovery

Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) was first described in 1910. Twenty years later, it was recognized as a rickettsial disease transmitted by the brown dog tick. In contrast to Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), MSF was thought to be a benign disease; however, the first severe case that resulted in death was reported in France in the 1980s. We have noted important changes in the epidemiology o...

A Case of Spotted Fever (Rocky Mountain Fever, Tick Fever or Typhus Fever)

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Panama

We describe a fatal pediatric case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Panama, the first, to our knowledge, since the 1950s. Diagnosis was established by immunohistochemistry, PCR, and isolation of Rickettsia rickettsii from postmortem tissues. Molecular typing demonstrated strong relatedness of the isolate to strains of R. rickettsii from Central and South America.