Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever, a Neglected Cause of Fever in Fars Province
By Linda on Jul 11, 2010 in Infections | comments(0)
Full article: http://ijms.sums.ac.ir/files/PDFfiles/11-Dr_%20Pouladfar.pdf
Excerpt:
Tick-borne relapsing fever is an endemic disease in some parts
of Iran. Borellia persica, the most common cause of this dis-
ease in Iran, has a wide geographic distribution and is present
in Alborz and Zagros mountain chains.
Here we report a 16ñyear-old male patient who presented
with two episodes of fever within 15 days. He had a history of
few overnight stays in a cave of mountainous area in Fars
province. Sites of tick bites were found on exposed areas of
extremities. Spirochetes were detected in Wright-stained
smears of the patient’s peripheral blood. He was successfully
treated with penicillin. To the best of our knowledge, there has
been no reported case of tick-borne relapsing fever from Fars
province in the literature during the last 28 years.
Tick-borne relapsing fever should be considered in patients
with recurrent fever and peripheral blood smear should be in-
vestigated for spirochetes. Further seroepidemiologic studies
should be carried out to determine the prevalence of this disease
in Fars province.
