Clinical and laboratorial evidence of Rickettsia felis infections in Latin America.
After the discovery and initial characterization of Rickettsia felis in 1992 by Azad and cols, and the subsequent first description of a human case of infection in 1994, there have been two communications of human rickettsiosis cases caused by Rickettsia felis in Latin America. The first one was published in 2000 by Zavala-Velazquez and cols in Mexico. In 2001 Raoult and cols described the occurrence of two human cases of Rickettsia felis rickettsiosis in Brazil. In the present discussion these two articles were compared and after the description of the principal signs and symptoms, it was concluded that more studies are needed with descriptions of a greater number of patients to establish the true frequency of the clinical signs and symptoms present in Rickettsia felis rickettsiosis.
Departamento de Nutrição Clínica e Social da Escola de Nutrição da Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, MG, Brasil. mgalvao@enut.ufop.br
Márcio Antônio Moreira
MA
Galvão
Cláudio
C
Mafra
Chequer Buffe
CB
Chamone
Simone Berger
SB
Calic
Jorge E
JE
Zavala-Velazquez
David Hughes
DH
Walker
D001938:Brazil; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012282:Rickettsia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D041161:Rickettsia felis / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D004269:DNA, Bacterial