Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece.
Background There are few studies about the presence of murine typhus in Greece. Our objective was to conduct a large scale retrospective investigation to determine the clinical and epidemiological features of patients diagnosed with murine typhus in Greece. Methodology/principal findings From 2012 t...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:be4a105ca96346ecb30e78b7bc6042b9 2023-05-15T15:10:32+02:00 Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. Stavroula Labropoulou Ekatherina Charvalos Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou Anastasios Ioannidis Panagiotis Sylignakis Styliani Τaka Ioulia Karageorgou Maria Linou Giota Mpizta Andreas Mentis Sophie Edouard Didier Raoult Emmanouil Angelakis 2021-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/article/be4a105ca96346ecb30e78b7bc6042b9 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/article/be4a105ca96346ecb30e78b7bc6042b9 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 3, p e0009186 (2021) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 2022-12-30T19:28:45Z Background There are few studies about the presence of murine typhus in Greece. Our objective was to conduct a large scale retrospective investigation to determine the clinical and epidemiological features of patients diagnosed with murine typhus in Greece. Methodology/principal findings From 2012 to 2019 serum samples from hospitalized patients and outpatients throughout Greece suspected for murine typhus infection were tested by immunofluorescence assay for Rickettsia typhi. Immunofluorescence positive samples obtained since 2016 were also tested by qPCR targeting R. typhi. Clinical and epidemiological data were retrospectively collected for the patients with confirmed murine typhus. Overall, we tested 5,365 different patients and, in total, 174 patients from all geographic regions of Greece were diagnosed with murine typhus. The most frequently reported sign or symptom was fever (89%), followed by headache (84%) and rash (81%). The classical triad of fever, headache, and rash was present in 72% of patients during their illness. Severe infections with complications including acute renal failure or septic shock were not recorded. The majority of cases (81%) occurred during May-October and peaked in June and September. Most of patients (81%) infected in Athens, recalled that their only activity the last weeks before symptoms onset was swimming on the beach and 59% of them also reported an insect bite while sunbathing. Conclusions/significance Our results may reflect the reemergence of murine typhus in Greece and we highlight the importance of awareness of this difficult-to-recognize undifferentiated febrile illness. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15 3 e0009186 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Stavroula Labropoulou Ekatherina Charvalos Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou Anastasios Ioannidis Panagiotis Sylignakis Styliani Τaka Ioulia Karageorgou Maria Linou Giota Mpizta Andreas Mentis Sophie Edouard Didier Raoult Emmanouil Angelakis Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Background There are few studies about the presence of murine typhus in Greece. Our objective was to conduct a large scale retrospective investigation to determine the clinical and epidemiological features of patients diagnosed with murine typhus in Greece. Methodology/principal findings From 2012 to 2019 serum samples from hospitalized patients and outpatients throughout Greece suspected for murine typhus infection were tested by immunofluorescence assay for Rickettsia typhi. Immunofluorescence positive samples obtained since 2016 were also tested by qPCR targeting R. typhi. Clinical and epidemiological data were retrospectively collected for the patients with confirmed murine typhus. Overall, we tested 5,365 different patients and, in total, 174 patients from all geographic regions of Greece were diagnosed with murine typhus. The most frequently reported sign or symptom was fever (89%), followed by headache (84%) and rash (81%). The classical triad of fever, headache, and rash was present in 72% of patients during their illness. Severe infections with complications including acute renal failure or septic shock were not recorded. The majority of cases (81%) occurred during May-October and peaked in June and September. Most of patients (81%) infected in Athens, recalled that their only activity the last weeks before symptoms onset was swimming on the beach and 59% of them also reported an insect bite while sunbathing. Conclusions/significance Our results may reflect the reemergence of murine typhus in Greece and we highlight the importance of awareness of this difficult-to-recognize undifferentiated febrile illness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stavroula Labropoulou Ekatherina Charvalos Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou Anastasios Ioannidis Panagiotis Sylignakis Styliani Τaka Ioulia Karageorgou Maria Linou Giota Mpizta Andreas Mentis Sophie Edouard Didier Raoult Emmanouil Angelakis |
author_facet |
Stavroula Labropoulou Ekatherina Charvalos Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou Anastasios Ioannidis Panagiotis Sylignakis Styliani Τaka Ioulia Karageorgou Maria Linou Giota Mpizta Andreas Mentis Sophie Edouard Didier Raoult Emmanouil Angelakis |
author_sort |
Stavroula Labropoulou |
title |
Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
title_short |
Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
title_full |
Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
title_fullStr |
Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in Greece. |
title_sort |
sunbathing, a possible risk factor of murine typhus infection in greece. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/article/be4a105ca96346ecb30e78b7bc6042b9 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 3, p e0009186 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 https://doaj.org/article/be4a105ca96346ecb30e78b7bc6042b9 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009186 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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15 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
e0009186 |
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