M Jensenius

..Since ecotourism and adventure travel are increasingly popular worldwide, the incidence of travel-associated tick-borne diseases is likely to increase in the future...

..We present two Norwegian holidaymakers who developed extensive disease after returning from Brazil and Tanzania, respectively. Both patients responded to the treatment with ivermectin...

..Europeans represent the majority of international travellers and clinicians encountering returned patients have an essential role in recognizing, and communicating travel-associated public health risks...

..Specific antibodies against Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus, were detected in all 3 cases...

..Given the current increase of international safari tourism to sub-Saharan Africa, more cases of sub-acute neuropathy following ATBF may well be encountered in Europe and elsewhere in the y to come...

..Imported fascioliasis is rarely reported but should be suspected in patients with a travel history to endemic areas, abdominal symptoms and hypereosinophilia of the blood...

..Hourly negative control trials repelled <5% of tick attacks. Our results suggest that commercial repellents containing > or =19.5% DEET provide a significant but short-lasting protection against questing A. hebraeum ticks...

..Tetracyclines are the drugs of first choice and should be prescribed whenever a case of rickettsiosis is suspected. Preventive measures rely on minimizing the risk of arthropod bites when traveling in areas of endemicity...

..01). A specific diagnosis of Rickettsia africae infection could be established in 15% of the patients by IFA and in 73% of the patients by a combination of WB and cross-adsorption assays (P < 0.01)...

..We describe the current knowledge of tick-borne rickettsioses as they relate to international travel, their microbiological diagnosis, treatment, possible prevention, and future prospects...

..Travellers to endemic areas should be informed of the risk of contracting African tick bite fever and be encouraged to take personal protective measures against tick bites...

..More than 90% of patients with rickettsial disease were treated with doxycycline, 43 (15.4%) were hospitalized, and 4 had a complicated course, including 1 fatal case of scrub typhus encephalitis acquired in Thailand...

..The induction of these mediators and the balance between them may be critical both for the regulation of inflammation and for protective immunity in ATBF...

..Our study suggests that ATBF is not uncommon in travelers to rural sub-Saharan Africa and that many cases have a nonspecific presentation...

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..African tick-bite fever occurs after contact with ticks that carry Rickettsia africae and that parasitize cattle and game. Sporadic reports suggest that this infection has specific clinical and epidemiologic features...

..africae infection suggests that the infection may be common in international travellers to rural sub-Saharan Africa but that most cases are asymptomatic or clinically mild and self-limited...

..These guidelines aim to help clinicians and microbiologists in diagnosing infection transmitted by tick bites and to provide the scientific and medical community with a better understanding of these infectious diseases...

..These results should be considered in the practice of travel medicine and development of health recommendations for European travelers...

..An update on these new infections should be of interest to health workers with patients who are international travellers...

..We recommend that sera collected 4 weeks after the onset of signs of patients with suspected African tick-bite fever should be used for the definitive serological diagnosis of R. africae infections...

..This observation and the large number of patients with a demonstrable viremia suggest that needle sharing may contribute to the dissemination of HAV...

..Our case was consistent with so called 'dengue fever with haemorrhages', a recently described entity that mainly affects adults and may cause severe bleedings also in the absence of DHF...

..To avoid the use of unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics, empirical therapy of bacteraemia should be adjusted according to the results of blood cultures...

..africae, seven distinct species of tick-borne rickettsiae are considered to be human pathogens. A combination of clinical alertness and molecular tools such as PCR base detection of DNA and sequencing help to describe new diseases...

..This first study of topical repellents against A. hebraeum suggests that 20% lotions of DEET and KBR 3023 are effective for 2 and 1 h, respectively, but that the repellent efficacies decrease thereafter...

..This interaction, which includes additive effects between sCD40L and R. africae, may contribute to endothelial inflammation and hypercoagulation in this disorder...

..In this review, we describe the current status of the epidemiology, microbiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of SFG rickettsioses in southern Africa...