Clinical and laboratorial evidence of Rickettsia felis infections in Latin America

• Main Authors: Márcio Antônio Moreira Galvão, Cláudio Mafra, Chequer Buffe Chamone, Simone Berger Calic, Jorge E. Zavala-Velazquez, David Hughes Walker
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2004
• Subjects: Rickettsia felis; Rickettsioses; Latin America; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/d90127a2b8014f1cad76e8fcae7187fb

After the discovery and initial characterization of Rickettsia felis in 1992 by Azad and cols, and the subsequent first description of a human case of infection in 1994, there have been two communications of human rickettsiosis cases caused by Rickettsia felis in Latin America. The first one was published in 2000 by Zavala-Velazquez and cols in Mexico. In 2001 Raoult and cols described the occurrence of two human cases of Rickettsia felis rickettsiosis in Brazil. In the present discussion these two articles were compared and after the description of the principal signs and symptoms, it was concluded that more studies are needed with descriptions of a greater number of patients to establish the true frequency of the clinical signs and symptoms present in Rickettsia felis rickettsiosis.