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.
D000328:Adult; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D003120:Colorado; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012061:Relapsing Fever / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D013987:Ticks / Q000502:physiology