Clinical and laboratorial evidence of Rickettsia felis infections in Latin America

Abstract

After the discovery and initial characterization of Rickettsia felis in 1992 by Azad and cols, and

Severe human infection with Rickettsia felis associated with hepatitis in Yucatan, Mexico

“…Although R. felis infection has not been described as a cause of severe disease, some dissimilarity in the clinical features of the R. felis -infected patients from different countries has been reported (Galvao et al, 2004). Such reported dissimilarity and our findings suggest a potentially broader range of clinical manifestations in R. felis patients.…”

“…Usually, R. felis infection is the cause of a mild-to-moderate illness characterized by fever, headache, exanthem, and often neurologic and visceral signs and symptoms (Galvao et al, 2004). Although the patients seldom require hospitalization and the infection is self-limiting, the infection can have more severe manifestations involving pulmonary compromise (Zavala-Velázquez et al, 2006).…”

Aproximación clínica y principales rickettsiosis transmitidas por garrapatas presentes en Latinoamérica

“…Rickettsia felis ha sido identificada causando enfermedad en humanos en varios países de Europa, Africa, Australia y Nueva Zelanda 57 Australia han presentado un curso leve, con rápida recuperación, tanto con o sin terapia antimicrobiana, con la excepción de una niña en Australia que presentó compromiso de coagulación y edema pulmonar requiriendo una corta estadía en una unidad de cuidados intensivos 60 . A diferencia del curso mayoritariamente benigno observado en otros continentes, en Latinoamérica se ha descrito compromiso de sistema nervioso central en algunos pacientes, consistentes en pérdida auditiva, meningismo y coma 63,64 .…”

Detection of Brazilian spotted fever infection by polymerase chain reaction in a patient from the state of São Paulo

“…R. felis, a pathogenic SFG rickettsia, was detected in Ctenocephalides felis collected from local domestic dogs (Horta 2002). In addition, R. felis was detected in Ctenocephalides fleas (Oliveira et al 2002) in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, employing these same molecular techniques, collected in an area where patients with R. felis rickettiosis were reported (Raoult et al 2001, Galvão et al 2004). These findings suggest that, although R. rickettsii is accepted as a BSF causing agent other rickettsiae species or different R. rickettsii variants may be involved, playing roles as yet to be determined.…”