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MEDITERRANEAN SPOTTED FEVER

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This Rickettsia fever is also known as Marseilles Fever, South African Tick Typhus, Kenyan Tick Typhus, Indian Tick Typhus and Crimean Tick Typhus (Service 2008). The causative agent is Rickettsia conorii, which occurs along the littoral of the Mediterranean Sea, Portugal, and Sicily, eastern Russia, India and sub-Saharan Africa. The disease may be related to Boutonneuse Fever, and it also invaded Uruguay in South America.

A sore develops after infection that has been named tache noire., which later is followed by a lymphadenitis.

The main vector is the dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, but Matheson (1950) also includes Haemaphysalis leachi and Amblyomma hebraeum as vectors. Infections in humans and animals are by the bite of the tick, and both transstadial and transovarial transmission occur. Reservoir hosts are the ticks, dogs and rodents. Crushing an infected tick into a wound or near the eyes can result in infection.

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Key References: <medvet.ref.htm> <Hexapoda>

Camicas, J. L., J. . Hervy, F. Adam & P. C. Morel. 1998. The ticks of the world (Acarida, Ixodida): Nomenclature, Described Stages, Hosts,

Distribution. Paris: Editions de l'ORSTOM.

Gammons, M. & G. Salam. 2002. Tick removal. Amer. Fam. Physician 66: 643-45.

Hoogstraal, H. 1966. Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by viruses. Ann. Rev. Ent. 11: 261-308.

Hoogstraal, H. 1967. Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by Rickettsia species. Ann. Rev. Ent. 12: 377-420.

Matheson, R. 1950. Medical Entomology. Comstock Publ. Co, Inc. 610 p.

Parola, P. & D. Raoult. 2001. Tick-borne typhuses. IN: The Encyclopedia of arthropod-transmitted Infections of Man and Domesticated

Animals.ed. M. W. Service, Wallingford: CABI: pp. 516-24.

Service, M. 2008. Medical Entomology For Students. Cambridge Univ. Press. 289 p

Legner, E. F. 1995. Biological control of Diptera of medical and veterinary importance. J. Vector Ecology 20(1): 59_120.

Legner, E. F. 2000. Biological control of aquatic Diptera. p. 847_870. Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera,

Vol. 1, Science Herald, Budapest. 978 p.

Sonenshine, D. E. & T. N. Mather (eds.) 1994. Ecological Dynamics of Tick-Borne Zoonoses. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.

Steer, A., J. Coburn & L. Glickstein. 2005. Lyme borreliosis. IN: Tick-Borne Diseases of Humans, ed. J. L. Goodman, D. T. Dennis & D. E. Sonenshine. Washington, DC: ASM Press