The Rickettsioses: A Practical Update

Rickettsia are small, obligately intracellular, gram-negative bacilli. They are distributed among a variety of hematophagous arthropod vectors and cause illness throughout the world. Rickettsioses present as an acute undifferentiated febrile illness and are often accompanied by headache, myalgias, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInfectious disease clinics of North America Vol. 33; no. 1; p. 213
Main Author Blanton, Lucas S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.03.2019
Subjects
Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use
Arthropod Vectors - microbiology
Doxycycline - therapeutic use
Humans
Rickettsia Infections - diagnosis
Rickettsia Infections - drug therapy
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - diagnosis
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - drug therapy
Murine typhus
Epidemic typhus
Rocky mountain spotted fever
Rickettsia rickettsii
Spotted fever group rickettsioses
Rickettsia typhi
Vector-borne disease
Rickettsia prowazekii
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Summary:Rickettsia are small, obligately intracellular, gram-negative bacilli. They are distributed among a variety of hematophagous arthropod vectors and cause illness throughout the world. Rickettsioses present as an acute undifferentiated febrile illness and are often accompanied by headache, myalgias, and malaise. Cutaneous manifestations include rash and eschar, which both occur at varying incidence depending on the infecting species. Serology is the mainstay of diagnosis, and the indirect immunofluorescence assay is the test of choice. Reactive antibodies are seldom present during early illness, so testing should be performed on both acute-phase and convalescent-phase sera. Doxycycline is the treatment of choice.
ISSN:1557-9824
DOI:10.1016/j.idc.2018.10.010