United States: Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported an outbreak of fatal Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a “severe” form of tickborne disease, claiming three lives and which is spreading to parts of the Americas.
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The patients were aged four and a half, 17, and 65, and had visited Tecate, a famous tourist spot in Northern Mexico.
Overall, six cases of RMSF were confirmed by the California Department of Public Health from July 2023 to January 2024.
The surviving patients noted that all of them had exposure in the Mexican region, which previously was not counted as a high-risk area.
More about RMSF
As the CDC indicates, although RMSF could be treated with doxycycline in its early stages, it can become fatal if not determined on time.
The experts state that the disease’s initial symptoms are not very apparent in its initial stage; it becomes a challenge for health providers to give the right treatment on time, sfgate.com reported.
Symptoms throughout the illness vary, where nausea, headache, and abdominal pain are common, but after two to four days, patients generally form a blotchy rash.
Furthermore, as experts state, those who survived may left with long-term impacts on their physical well-being, such as hearing loss, limb amputation, or mental disability.
About disease spread
The expert report suggests that the disease is carried by a local
brown dog ticks and free-roaming dogs.
In order to catch the disease early in its course, the CDC suggested having a medical checkup immediately after falling ill, being bitten by a tick, or having been visited a highly wooded area where the insects are known to reside.
In case the initial medical report indicates a sickness from RMSF and orders blood tests, in the mean period, the health provider must recommend an antibiotic treatment before obtaining a final report, which could even take weeks to fetch.
According to the November report, emphasizing the collaborative efforts of local, state, and international health agencies required to diagnose some of the patients, “This outbreak highlighted a new area of RMSF risk in Mexico and underscored the need for health care provider awareness on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border,” sfgate.com reported.
“… Continued binational collaborations on surveillance and communication will be important for future prevention measures,” it added.