Rickettsial Disease
Basics
Description
- Disorders caused by the Rickettsiae family of organisms including those which cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other similar tick-borne illnesses, the typhus group, and the organisms that cause ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis
- All organisms are obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria and therefore are difficult to grow in culture.
- The diseases caused by each group of organisms are similar, encompassing a syndrome including fever, rash, headache, and capillary leak; all are transmitted via an insect vector.
General Prevention
- Fleas, ticks, and mites should be controlled in endemic areas with the appropriate insecticides.
- Clothing to cover the entire body should be worn in tick-infested areas. In the case of a recognized bite, ticks should be removed from human skin properly, with care not to expel the contents of the tick’s stomach into the site of the bite.
- In areas where louse-borne typhus is epidemic, periodic delousing and dusting of insecticide into clothes are recommended.
- Paradoxic effect of rodenticides:
- Fleas and mites seek alternate hosts (i.e., humans) when mice or rats are not present.
- Therefore, rodenticides should not be the only preventive measure taken in endemic areas.
- Except for scrub typhus, all rickettsial diseases produce long-term immunity to the etiologic organisms within the same group.
Pathophysiology
- Spotted fever, typhus, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis groups cause vasculitis as a result of organisms invading the endothelial cells of small blood vessels or white blood cells.
- This vasculitis manifests as rash in cutaneous tissues and systemic illness due to capillary leak throughout other organs.
Etiology
- Spotted fever group Rickettsia and the agents of ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis (Ehrlichia and Anaplasma species) are transmitted to humans by ticks.
- Rickettsialpox and scrub typhus are transmitted by mites associated with mice.
- Epidemic typhus is a louse-borne illness, and endemic typhus, also known as murine typhus, is transmitted by fleas.
- The rickettsial diseases that occur in the United States are Rocky Mountain spotted fever, murine typhus, rickettsialpox, epidemic typhus, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis.
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Citation
Cabana, Michael D., editor. "Rickettsial Disease." 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 8th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2019. Pediatrics Central, peds.unboundmedicine.com/pedscentral/view/5-Minute-Pediatric-Consult/617491/all/Rickettsial_Disease.
Rickettsial Disease. In: Cabana MDM, ed. 5-Minute Pediatric Consult. Wolters Kluwer; 2019. https://peds.unboundmedicine.com/pedscentral/view/5-Minute-Pediatric-Consult/617491/all/Rickettsial_Disease. Accessed November 2, 2024.
Rickettsial Disease. (2019). In Cabana, M. D. (Ed.), 5-Minute Pediatric Consult (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. https://peds.unboundmedicine.com/pedscentral/view/5-Minute-Pediatric-Consult/617491/all/Rickettsial_Disease
Rickettsial Disease [Internet]. In: Cabana MDM, editors. 5-Minute Pediatric Consult. Wolters Kluwer; 2019. [cited 2024 November 02]. Available from: https://peds.unboundmedicine.com/pedscentral/view/5-Minute-Pediatric-Consult/617491/all/Rickettsial_Disease.
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