Ocular Manifestations of Rickettsial Disease

Rickettsioses are emergent and resurgent arthropod vector borne diseases due to obligate intracellular small gram-negative bacteria. Most of them are transmitted to humans by the bite of contaminated arthropods, such as ticks. Systemic disease typically consists of high fever, headache and skin rash, with or without «tache noire» (dark spot). Ocular involvement is common including conjunctivitis, keratitis, anterior uveitis, panuveitis, retinitis, retinal vascular changes, and optic nerve involvement. Proper clinical diagnosis of this infectious disease is based on epidemiological data, history, systemic symptoms and signs, and the pattern of ocular involvement. The diagnosis is usually confirmed by detection of specific antibodies in serum. Ocular involvement associated with rickettsial infection usually has a selflimited course, but it can result in persistent visual impairment. Doxycycline is the treatment of choice for rickettsial diseases but prevention is the mainstay of rickettsial infection control. *Corresponding author: Moncef Khairallah, Department of Ophthalmology, Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia, Tel: 21673461144; Fax: 21673460678; E-mail: [email protected] Received February 28, 2014; Accepted April 24, 2014; Published April 27, 2014 Citation: Abroug N, Khochtali S, Kahloun R, Mahmoud A, Attia S, et al. (2014) Ocular Manifestations of Rickettsial Disease. J Infect Dis Ther 2: 140. doi:10.4172/2332-0877.1000140 Copyright: © 2014 Abroug N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.