Rickettsial diseases in children.
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Date
2015-04
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Abstract
In a tropical country like India, fevers are caused by different etiological agents. Rickettsial
infections, which have a global distribution is one of the differential diagnosis in such cases and are
reported from almost all parts of India. Rickettsial diseases widely vary in severity from self-limited
mild illnesses to fulminating life-threatening infections. They are obligate intracellular gramnegative
coccobacillary forms that multiply within eukaryotic cells which makes it difficult to
culture them on artificial culture medium.
With globalization there is rapid spread of disease across the continents and therefore, skills for
diagnosis and management of the disease attains global importance.
Rickettsial diseases can be clinically classified as Spotted Fever group, typhus group, distinctive
clinical rickettsiae and emerging rickettsiae. The clinical course will have incubation period, stage
non-specific clinical signs and symptoms followed by typical/classical features depending on the
type of rickettsiae infecting a person. However the clinical manifestation varies from one
geographical area to another area for same species.
The rickettsial diseases once thought to have been eradicated from India are re-emerging in many
parts of our country. Their presence has recently been documented in at least eleven states of our
country. Greater clinical awareness, a higher index of suspicion, better use of available diagnostic
tools would increase the frequency with which rickettsial diseases are diagnosed.
Description
Keywords
Rickettsial infections, typhus fevers, Weil Felix test, doxycycline
Citation
Shenoy Suchitra, Baliga Shantharam, Ashok J. Rickettsial diseases in children. Journal of International Medicine and Dentistry. 2015 Apr; 2(1): 63-73.