SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Relapsing Fever”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1978

Tick-borne relapsing fever in the Eastern United States.

Tick-borne relapsing fever is endemic in the western part of the United States, but it has not been reported east of the Mississippi River. Sporadic cases have been reported in the eastern part of the United States, but travel to the West during the incubation period appeared to provide the source of infection. In the fall of 1975, a case of relapsing fever was diagnosed in Cincinnati in a child who had not traveled outside of Ohio, indicating the presence of Borrelia in this area. Serial serological studies indicated that B turicatae was the species involved. The occurrence of this case suggests that relapsing fever may exist in the eastern part of the United States, but its presence may not be appreciated because of the rarity of the disease and the difficulty in confirming the diagnosis.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Relapsing fever and its serological discrimination from Lyme borreliosis.

Patients with Borrelia-caused relapsing fever produce cross-reacting antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, the anti-genetically related causative agent of Lyme borreliosis. The antibody response of the serum of a patient (acute and convalescent) with relapsing fever was analysed by the immunoblot technique using Borrelia hermsii and B. burgdorferi as antigens. The diagnosis was established by microscopic detection of spirochetes in the patient's blood. The patient's serum showed significantly elevated titers of IgG and IgM in a B. burgdorferi indirect immunofluorescence assay. Immunoblot analysis indicated the presence of cross-reacting antibodies directed to B. burgdorferi antigens with apparent molecular weights of 60, 41, 40, 36, 30 and 20 kDa.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗

PubMed1992

Detection of plasma tumor necrosis factor, interleukins 6, and 8 during the Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction of relapsing fever.

The Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction (J-HR) is a clinical syndrome occurring soon after the first adequate dose of an antimicrobial drug to treat infectious diseases such as Lyme disease, syphilis, and relapsing fever. Previous attempts to identify factors mediating this reaction, that may cause death, have been unsuccessful. We conducted a prospective trial in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 17 patients treated with penicillin for proven louse-borne relapsing fever due to Borrelia recurrentis to evaluate the association of symptoms with plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukins 6, and 8 (IL-6 and -8). 14 of the 17 (82%) patients experienced a typical J-HR consisting of rigors, a rise in body temperature (1.06 +/- 0.2 degrees C) peaking at 2 h, leukopenia (7.4 +/- 0.6 x 10(-3) cells/mm3) at 4 h, a slight decrease, and then rise of mean arterial blood pressure. Spirochetes were cleared from blood in 5 +/- 1 h after penicillin. There were no fatalities, but constitutional symptoms were severe during J-HR. Plasma TNF, IL-6, and -8 were raised in several patients on admission, but a seven-, six-, and fourfold elevation of these plasma cytokine concentrations over admission levels was detected, respectively, occurring in transient form coincidental with observed pathophysiological changes of J-HR. Elevated plasma cytokine levels were not detected in the three patients who did not suffer J-HR. We conclude that the severe pathophysiological changes characterizing the J-HR occurring on penicillin treatment of louse-borne relapsing fever are closely associated with transient elevation of plasma TNF, IL-6, and -8 concentrations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1977

Louse-borne relapsing fever: I. A clinical and laboratory study of 363 cases in the Sudan.

Louse-borne relapsing fever seems to have become endemic in the southern Sudan. The epidemic history of the disease in the Sudan is reviewed. We have studied 363 Sudanese patients involved in an outbreak of louse-borne relapsing fever in Khartoum (Sudan) between January and June 1974. 318 of the 363 patients were new immigrants from the soughern Sudan to Khartoum. The clinical presentation varied. The common clinical fetures of the disease were: fever (94%), headache (85%), hepatosplenomegaly (74%), body and joint pains (66%), abdominal pain and tenderness (63%), jaundice (46%) and epistaxis (40%). Thrombocytopenia was common. Biochemical evidence of hepatocellular and renal damage was present in most patients. The mortality rate was 5-5% with treatment. Post-mortem examination was performed on six cases. The organs predominantly involved were the liver, spleen, brain and lungs. The common causes of death were severe hepatic damage, lobar pneumonia, subarachnoid haemorrhage and splenic rupture.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Louse-borne relapsing fever in children.

Clinical manifestations of louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) in children admitted to Jimma Teaching Hospital from March 1991 to September 1991 are described. The clinical manifestations were mild and the frequency of occurrence of each feature was lower than in adults. Jaundice and cardiac abnormality have not been found in children. The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction was also mild and occurred in about 16% of the cases. The prognosis of LBRF was excellent. Initial treatment with penicillin and continued treatment with tetracycline for a couple of days was justifiable. Further detailed studies with a larger series is recommended.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Tetracycline versus penicillin in the treatment of louse-borne relapsing fever.

A prospective study of 120 louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) patient admitted to Mekele Regional Hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia from September to November 1991 was done. The patients were assigned systematically to a single dose of either tetracycline or procaine penicillin (sixty each). Doses given were oral tetracycline 250 mg or intramuscular procaine penicillin 200,000 units for children ages 12 years or less, and 500 mg or 600,000 IU for adults, respectively. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effectiveness of tetracycline to that of procaine penicillin. Both drugs induced a Jarisch-Herxheimer (JH) like reaction, which was clinically similar in the two treatment groups, but peaked later and was more prolonged in the patients treated with procaine penicillin. Spirochaetes cleared more slowly and relapses were noticed only in the procaine penicillin treated group. Thus, tetracycline is recommended as first choice therapy and a single dose is sufficient for treatment of LBRF patients.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1979

Tick-borne relapsing fever in Colorado. Historical review and report of cases.

Since 1915 the front range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains has been postulated as a focus of endemic tick-borne relapsing fever. However, the disease has rarely been identified: only two cases have been reported in Colorado since 1944. Three sporadic cases in 1977--tightly grouped geographically and temporally--prompted an epidemiologic review. Tick-borne relapsing fever should be considered in the differential diagnosis of recurrent paroxysmal fever--with or without known presence of ticks--whenever exposure in an endemic area is part of a patient's history.

Adult↗

PubMed1975

Tropical thrombophlebitis. The role of relapsing fever in its causation.

In tropical thrombophlebitis the leg veins are most often involved, but in some patients thrombosis of the visceral veins may be fatal. As its cause is unknown, attention is called to outbreaks of relapsing fever in the Transvaal which effects labourers on citrus and maize farms and which often develops into thrombophlebitis. Appropriate tests for relapsing fever should be done in patients who develop this complication. Passengers on long overnight journeys by air are liable to deep vein thrombosis and should exercise to avoid it.

Aerospace Medicine↗

PubMed1992

Relapsing fever in children--demographic, social and clinical features.

Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is an acute febrile illness endemic Ethiopia. To date reports of childhood LBRF are few. The demographic, social and clinical features of eighty children with LBRF admitted to Ethio-Swedish Children's Hospital, Addis Abeba between 1989 and 1991 is presented. The mean age of patients was 8.8 years (range 4 months to 15 years). The male to female ratio was 1.2:1. Seventy-seven (97%) patients came from Addis Abeba. They came from poor families living in overcrowded homes. Fever, headache, right upper quadrant pain, chills and rigors were common symptoms. Fever and hepatosplenomegaly were common signs. Three drug regimens were used in the treatment of patients. A combination of penicillin and tetracycline, chloramphenicol alone and erythromycin alone, all given for 3 days. There was only one death. The literature on LBRF in adults is reviewed and the results are compared (1).

Adolescent↗

PubMed1977

Tick-borne relapsing fever: an interstate outbreak originating at Grand Canyon National Park.

During the 1973 summer season, 27 employees and 35 overnight guests at the North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, acquired febrile illnesses compatibel with relapsing fever. Sixteen cases were confirmed by finding Borrelia spirochetes in peripheral blood smears or inoculated Swiss mice. Retrospective surveys of 278 employees and 7247 guests at the park revealed that acquisition of illness was significantly associated with the persons sleeping in rustic log cabins and acquiring bites of "unknown" insects. From rodent nesting materials found in the walls and attics of cabins where cases had occurred, infective Ornithodoros hermsi ticks were recovered. Exceptional activity of ticks in human populations appeared to have resulted from a decreased population of the ticks' usual rodent hosts. Vector control activities consisted of spraying the cabins with residual insecticide, removing nesting materials, and "rodent proofing." This outbreak, the largest yet identified in North America, extends the known range of a principal vector and establishes the North Rim as an endemic source of tick-borne relapsing fever.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Identification of the tick-borne relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia hermsii by using a species-specific monoclonal antibody.

Borrelia hermsii causes a relapsing fever in humans and is one of several species of tick-borne spirochetes known to occur in the western United States. Spirochetes observed in the peripheral blood of patients acutely ill have been presumptively identified in the past by the geographic location of exposure and the probable species of tick vector. We describe a monoclonal antibody (H9826) that bound to the flagellar protein of B. hermsii but not to those of any of the other species tested, which included B. parkeri, B. turicatae, B. coriaceae, B. anserina, B. burgdorferi, and Leptospira interrogans serovar ballum. This antibody bound efficiently to B. hermsii in an indirect immunofluorescence assay and was used to rapidly detect and identify this spirochete in the peripheral blood of experimentally infected mice and in the central ganglia of Ornithodoros hermsi ticks. H9826 can rapidly confirm the identification of B. hermsii to increase our understanding concerning the geographic distribution, vector specificity, and epidemiological significance of this zoonotic human pathogen.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗

PubMed1977

Louse-borne relapsing fever: II. Combined penicillin and tetracycline therapy in 160 Sudanese patients.

One hundred and sixty patients with louse-borne relapsing fever were treated with a combination therapy of procaine penicillin and tetracycline. Fortified procaine penicillin B.P. was given as 400,000 units in the first day. This was followed the next day by 2 g tetracycline orally in divided doses for seven days. A mild rise in temperature was observed in 22 (13-7%) patients within four hours of administering penicillin. Rigors and hypotension occurred in one patient. Relapse occurred in two patients, of whom one had concomitant typhoid and one visceral leishmaniasis. The combined therapy has been found to be effective and safe. It lacks the disadvantages of penicillin (relapses) and tetracycline (severe reaction), when each drug is used alone.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

The relapsing fever agent Borrelia hermsii has multiple copies of its chromosome and linear plasmids.

Borrelia hermsii, a spirochete which causes relapsing fever in humans and other mammals, eludes the immune response by antigenic variation of the "Vmp" proteins. This occurs by replacement of an expressed vmp gene with a copy of a silent vmp gene. Silent and expressed vmp genes are located on separate linear plasmids. To further characterize vmp recombination, copy numbers were determined for two linear plasmids and for the 1-megabase chromosome by comparing hybridization of probes to native DNA with hybridization to recombinant plasmids containing borrelial DNA. Plasmid copy numbers were also estimated by ethidium bromide fluorescence. Total cellular DNA content was determined by spectrophotometry. For borrelias grown in mice, copy numbers and 95% confidence intervals were 14 (12-17) for an expression plasmid, 8 (7-9) for a silent plasmid, and 16 (13-18) for the chromosome. Borrelias grown in broth medium had one-fourth to one-half this number of plasmids and chromosomes. Staining of cells with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole revealed DNA to be distributed throughout most of the spirochete's length. These findings indicate that borrelias organize their total cellular DNA into several complete genomes and that cells undergoing serotype switches do one or more of the following: (1) coexpress Vmps from switched and unswitched expression plasmids for at least three to five generations, (2) suppress transcription from some expression plasmid copies, or (3) partition expression plasmids nonrandomly. The lower copy number of the silent plasmid indicates that nonreciprocal Vmp gene recombination may result from loss of recombinant silent plasmids by segregation.

Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins↗

PubMed1979