BACKGROUND African tick-bite fever, a tickborne disease caused by Rickettsia africae, is endemic in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and in the French West Indies. Most cases reported in the literature occurred in middle-aged, otherwise-healthy persons and corresponded to benign diseases. The course of African tick bite fever in elderly people is less well documented. METHODS The medical rec...

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging disease in East Asia. It is thought that the SFTS virus (SFTSV) circulates between ticks and animals in nature and that the virus is transmitted to humans by tick bites. SFTS is endemic to Nagasaki in western Japan; however, epidemiological information regarding SFTSV in Nagasaki is not known. In this study, we performed SFTSV Ig...

A 25-year-old man with acute, bilateral facial palsies is presented. He had a lymphocytic meningitis, history of tick bites, and lived in an area endemic for Lyme disease, which was ultimately confirmed by serology. Electrodiagnostic investigation included facial motor nerve study, blink reflex and electromyography of facial muscles, which were indicative of a neurapraxic lesion on the right an...

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis, is an obligate intracellular bacterium most commonly acquired from tick bites. High seroprevalence rates in endemic regions suggest that transfusion transmission of A phagocytophilum would be a common event; however, only 2 cases have previously been reported. The exact cause of this discrepancy is not known. Who...

Section 1 A 49-year-old man with a medical history significant for diabetes mellitus, a left thigh sarcoma that was resected 5 years prior, and a seizure disorder on valproic acid presentedwith 2months of progressive numbness and weakness. Symptoms began with painful paresthesias in both thumbs that progressed to numbness. His feet subsequently became numb, and within 3 weeks he noted gait unst...

We report two cases of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) that occurred in northern California in summer 1998. Patients had fever, malaise, and myalgia, reported tick bites, had moderate thrombocytopenia, and had normal or slightly elevated liver enzyme activities. Ehrlichial inclusions were observed in the blood of one patient, and HGE-agent DNA was amplified by PCR from both patients. Gene...