Brill-Zinsser disease in a patient following infection with sylvatic epidemic typhus associated with flying squirrels.
Recrudescent Rickettsia prowazekii infection, also known as Brill-Zinsser disease, can manifest decades after untreated primary infection but is rare in contemporary settings. We report the first known case of Brill-Zinsser disease in a patient originally infected with a zoonotic strain of R. prowazekii acquired from flying squirrels.
McQuiston
Jennifer H
JH
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA. fzh7@cdc.gov
Knights
Edwin B
EB
Demartino
Peter J
PJ
Paparello
Scott F
SF
Nicholson
William L
WL
Singleton
Joseph
J
Brown
Catherine M
CM
Massung
Robert F
RF
Urbanowski
Joseph C
JC
D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D012283:Rickettsia prowazekii / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012589:Sciuridae / Q000382:microbiology*; D014438:Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D014481:United States; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000635:transmission
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007074:Immunoglobulin G