Tick-borne lymphadenopathy–a new rickettsial disease?

Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiae in Ticks, Morocco

“…Human infection with R. slovaca was reported in France in 1997. Patients with similar clinical signs were observed in Spain, Bulgaria, and Hungary, where the syndrome was known as tick-borne lymphadenopathy or Dermacentor-borne necrosis erythema lymphadenopathy because of eschar at the tick bite site in the scalp and cervical lymphadenopathy (2,(18)(19)(20). The incubation period ranges from 4 to 15 days.…”

Screening of the Prevalence of Antibodies to the Tick Hyalomma lusitanicum in a Province of Northern Spain

“…Since for each tick-borne disease there may be one or several vectors (Lane, 1994), perhaps this ixodid could be implicated as a vector susceptible of parasitizing humans. In this sense, other studies would in a future provide us about the frequency and which life cycle stages of this tick can infest humans as well as its role in the transmission of human pathogens as happened with those studies in which Dermacentor marginatus was recently demonstrated to be the vector in the transmission of Rickettsia slovaca, that causes the TIBOLA/DEBONEL disease in humans (Rehacek, 1984;Lakos., 1997;Raoult et al, 1997;Ibarra et al, 2006). Until date, each tick species has preferred environmental conditions and biotopes that determine the geographical distribution of the ticks and the risk areas fro tick borne diseases, but day to day more research studies are going on in order to elucidate a higher diversity of ixodid tick species infesting humans potentially transmisors of underdiagnosed diseases.…”

Rickettsia slovacaInfection, France

“…This organism is also a common cause of disease in Hungary and in La Rioja, Spain ( 3 ). These data suggest that TIBOLA mainly occurs in young children, affects women predominately, and occurs primarily during the colder months ( 9 , 10 ). As previously reported ( 9 ), we found that standard microimmunofluorescence serologic testing was insensitive and that Western blot is more useful and allows identification to the species level after cross-adsorption studies.…”