Spotted fever rickettsiosis in Coronel Fabriciano, Minas Gerais State

Abstract

We report cases of spotted fever rickettsiosis in Coronel Fabriciano Municipality of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The cases occurred in May and June of 2000. During this period there were two deaths among children from an area named Pedreira in a periurban area of this municipality. In a boy who died with clinical manifestations of Brazilian spotted fever, a necropsy revealed the presence of a spotted fever group Rickettsia. The serological results confirm the difficulty in the differential diagnosis of patients with symptoms of rickettsial diseases.

Antibodies to Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia typhi, Coxiella burnetii, Bartonella henselae, Bartonella quintana, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis among healthy population in Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…Lemos et al (1994Lemos et al ( , 2001), Del Guercio et al (1997), and Galvão et al (2002) found respectively 7.14, 4.2, 5.3, and 10.1% seroprevalence rates in different serosurveys. Despite this low seroprevalence rate, spotted fever group rickettsioses have been increasing in the studied region with an incidence of over 0.5/100,000 inhabitants-year (Costa 2004) compatible with the ongoing epidemic expansion recently reported from some Brazilian southeast regions (Rozental et al 2002, Galvão et al 2003.…”

“…The seroprevalence rates for R. rickettsii, R. typhi, C. burnetii, B. henselae, B. quintana, and E. chaffeensis were respectively 1.6% (7 samples (WHO 1993, Rozental et al 2002, Walker 2004a. Until recently the rickettsiales order comprised the genus Rickettsia, Coxiella, Bartonella, Orientia, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia (Raoult & Roux 1997) and despite of the resulting withdraw of some of them from this order especially due to 16S rRNA studies, they all can be functionally considered rickettsial agents (Raoult & Roux 1997, Walker 2004b.Most of the available publications of Brazilian rickettsial infections have focused on spotted fever group rickettsioses especially R. rickettsii infections (Lemos et al 1994, Del Guercio et al 1997, Rozental et al 2002, Galvão et al 2003. This issue has been extensively reviewed recently by Galvão (2004).…”

“…Most of the available publications of Brazilian rickettsial infections have focused on spotted fever group rickettsioses especially R. rickettsii infections (Lemos et al 1994, Del Guercio et al 1997, Rozental et al 2002, Galvão et al 2003. This issue has been extensively reviewed recently by Galvão (2004).…”

Survey of rickettsiae in humans, dogs, horses, and ticks in Northern Paraná, Brazil

“…ticks are the main vectors of R. rickettsii to humans and animals (GALVÃO et al, 2003;McDADE;NEWHOUSE, 1986). Amblyomma cajennense is considered the most important vector for transmission to humans (LEMOS et al, 1997, GUEDES et al, 2005, although A. aureolatum is also important in a few areas in the state of São Paulo (PINTER; .…”

Rickettsial spotted fever in capoeirão Village, Itabira, Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…BSF was initially reported in Brazil in 1929 27 , and has been increasingly reported over the last 20 years. Cases are known to occur in the Southeastern states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo 7,17,19,20,21,29,32 . Minas Gerais has been reported as the highest prevalence state 17 , although São Paulo has an increasing number of cases reported recently 5 .…”