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R. parkeri causes mild spotted fever disease in humans, whose most common signs and symptoms are fever, an eschar at the site of tick attachment, rash, headache, and muscle aches. Doxycycline is the most common drug used to reduce the symptoms associated with disease.
These bacteria are typically transmitted to humans through the bites of infected arthropods, such as ticks, fleas, and lice. Rickettsial diseases are characterized by a range of symptoms, which can vary depending on the specific type of rickettsial infection but often include fever, headache, rash, and muscle aches.
Other symptoms may include muscle pains and vomiting. [3] Long-term complications following recovery may include hearing loss or loss of part of an arm or leg. [3] The disease is caused by Rickettsia rickettsii, a type of bacterium that is primarily spread to humans by American dog ticks, Rocky Mountain wood ticks, and brown dog ticks. [4]
The pathogen, however, does not harm the tick itself and only causes symptoms in mammals infected by the tick. [29] Both the American Dog Tick and the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick serve as long-term reservoirs for Rickettsia rickettsii, infecting the posterior diverticula of the midgut, the small intestine, and the ovaries. [28]
However, scrub typhus is still considered a rickettsiosis, even though the causative organism has been reclassified from Rickettsia tsutsugamushi to Orientia tsutsugamushi. [ citation needed ] Examples of rickettsioses include typhus , both endemic and epidemic, Rocky Mountain spotted fever , and Rickettsialpox .
Rickettsialpox is a mite-borne infectious illness caused by bacteria of the genus Rickettsia (Rickettsia akari). [1] Physician Robert Huebner and self-trained entomologist Charles Pomerantz played major roles in identifying the cause of the disease after an outbreak in 1946 in a New York City apartment complex, documented in "The Alerting of Mr. Pomerantz," an article by medical writer Berton ...
Although R. helvetica was initially thought to be harmless in humans and many animal species, some individual case reports suggest that it may be capable of causing a nonspecific fever in humans. [4] [5] [7] In 1997, a man living in eastern France seroconverted to Rickettsia 4 weeks after onset of an unexplained febrile illness. [8]
After the rickettsia bacteria infects humans through a tick bite, it invades endothelial cells in the circulatory system (veins, arteries, capillaries). [14] The body then releases chemicals that cause inflammation , resulting in the characteristic symptoms like headache and fever.