Spotted Fevers
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چکیده
Spotted fevers, which are caused by Rickettsia spp. in the spotted fever group (SFG), have been recognized in people for more than a hundred years. The clinical signs are broadly similar in all of these diseases, but the course ranges from mild and self-limited to severe and life-threatening. For a long time, spotted fevers were thought to be caused by only a few organisms, including Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain spotted fever) in the Americas, R. conorii (Mediterranean spotted fever) in the Mediterranean region and R. australis (Queensland tick typhus) in Australia. Many additional species have been recognized as human pathogens since the 1980s. These infections are easily misidentified with commonly used diagnostic tests. For example, some illnesses once attributed to R. rickettsii are caused by R. parkeri, a less virulent organism. Animals can be infected with SFG rickettsiae, and develop antibodies to these organisms. With the exception of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and possibly Mediterranean spotted fever in dogs, there is no strong evidence that these organisms are pathogenic in animals. It is nevertheless possible that illnesses have not been recognized, or have been attributed to another agent. Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is a recognized illness among dogs in the North America, was only recently documented in dogs in South America.
منابع مشابه
High Seroprevalence of Antibodies against Spotted Fever and Scrub Typhus Bacteria in Patients with Febrile Illness, Kenya
Serum samples from patients in Kenya with febrile illnesses were screened for antibodies against bacteria that cause spotted fever, typhus, and scrub typhus. Seroprevalence was 10% for spotted fever group, <1% for typhus group, and 5% for scrub typhus group. Results should help clinicians expand their list of differential diagnoses for undifferentiated fevers.
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Adult Still's Disease was first described in 1971 by Bywaters in fourteen adult female patients who presented with symptoms indistinguishable from that of classic childhood Still's Disease (Bywaters, 1971). George Still in 1896 first recognized this triad of quotidian (daily) fevers, evanescent rash, and arthritis in children with what later became known as juvenile inflammatory arthritis (Stil...
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A focal outbreak of highly fatal disease occurred in eastern Costa Rica in 1974. No rickettsial spotted fevers have previously been reported in Costa Rica. Nevertheless, the available evidence points to an unidentified rickettsial pathogen, probably of the spotted fever group, as the agent responsible for this outbreak.
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Rickettsiae are gram-negative, obligately intracellular bacteria responsible for arthropod-borne spotted fevers and typhus. Experimental studies have delineated a cluster of naturally rifampin-resistant spotted fever group species. We sequenced the 4, 122- to 4,125-bp RNA polymerase beta-subunit-encoding gene (rpoB) from typhus and spotted fever group representatives and obtained partial sequen...
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