Rickettsialpox
| Rickettsialpox | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | Infectious disease |
| ICD-10 | A79.1 |
| ICD-9-CM | 083.2 |
| DiseasesDB | 32057 |
| MedlinePlus | 001351 |
| eMedicine | med/2035 |
| MeSH | D012288 |
Rickettsialpox is a mite-borne infectious illness caused by bacteria of the Rickettsia genus (Rickettsia akari). Physician Robert Huebner and self-trained entomologist Charles Pomerantz played major roles in identifying the cause of the disease after an outbreak in 1946 in a New York City apartment complex, documented in "The Alerting of Mr. Pomerantz," a short story by medical writer Berton Roueché.
Although it is not transmitted by a tick (a characteristic of spotted fever), the bacteria is a part of the spotted fever group of Rickettsia, and so this condition is often classified with that group.
The first symptom is a bump formed by the bite, eventually resulting in a black, crusty scab. Many of the symptoms are flu-like including fever, chills, weakness and achy muscles but the most distinctive symptom is the rash that breaks out, spanning the infected person's entire body.
The bacteria is originally found in mice and cause mites feeding on the mice (usually the house mouse) to become infected. Humans will get rickettsialpox when receiving a bite from an infected mite, not from the mice themselves.
The mite is Liponyssoides sanguineus, which was previously known as Allodermanyssus sanguineus.
Rickettsialpox is treated with tetracyclines (doxycycline is the drug of choice). Chloramphenicol is a suitable alternative.
Rickettsialpox is generally mild and resolves within 2–3 weeks if untreated. There are no known deaths resulting from the disease.
Those dwelling in urban areas (which typically experience rodent problems) have a higher risk of contracting Rickettsialpox.
The initial outbreak of the disease took place in the Regency Park complex which had 69 apartment units organized in three groups each three stories in height, located in Kew Gardens, in the New York City borough of Queens. Physicians who had seen patients starting in early 1946 had assumed that they were dealing with an atypical form of chickenpox, but the realization was made that they were dealing with a localized epidemic of unknown origins starting in the summer of that year. Physicians canvassed the residents of the building and found that there had been 124 cases of this disease from January through October among the 2,000 people living in the complex, reaching a peak of more than 20 cases reported in July. Individuals afflicted with the condition ranged in age from 3 months to 71, males and females were equally affected and the incidence among adults (6.5% of the 1,400 above age 15) exceeded that of children 14 and under (5.3%).
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