Sandfly Fever: A Mini Review

Sandfly fever, also known as Pappataci fever or phlebotomus fever is an interesting disease mimicking other conditions which causes fever, myalgia and malaise along with abnormalities in liver enzymes and hematological test results [1]. Without suspicion of the disease itself or a presence of an epidemic, it is very hard to diagnose this disease in a non-endemic area, particularly if it is travel associated and if the anamnesis is not clear [1-5]. The differential diagnosis consists of a very board spectrum list of diseases such as viral, parasitic and bacterial infections. Even hematologic malignancies and bone marrow depression can be suspected in this patient group. Unless it causes neurologic involvement, the disease is usually self-limited and results with good outcome but still it causes a certain degree of morbidity and the clinic looks severe at the time of the presentation and needs a lot of initial clinical and laboratory work to clear out the diagnosis [1]. The sandfly fever has a great public health importance in endemic areas and with growing attention and awareness, the new antigenically distinct serotypes are identified from different countries in Europe, southeast Asia, central Asia and Africa [6-13]. The disease also became very important from the aspect of traveler’s health and military medicine [14-17].