Fatal human infection with Rickettsia rickettsii, Yucatán, Mexico.

The first fatal Rickettsia rickettsii infection was diagnosed in the southwest of Mexico. The patient had fever, erythematous rash, abdominal pain, and severe central nervous system involvement with convulsive crisis. The diagnosis of R.

Rickettsia felis, the agent of an emerging infectious disease: Report of a new case in Mexico.

The fourth case of human infection with Rickettsia felis in Yucatán, Mexico was documented by serologic testing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The role of R. felis in human disease has been demonstrated by molecular methods in a few patients from the U.

Identification of Ctenocephalides felis fleas as a host of Rickettsia felis, the agent of a spotted fever rickettsiosis in Yucatań, Mexico.

In search for the vector of the recently recognized spotted fever rickettsiosis of the Yucatán, ticks, fleas, and lice were collected from vegetation and dogs in localities where seropositive persons had been found. The arthropods were examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers for the genus-specific 17-kDa protein gene followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and DNA sequencing. Eleven (20%) of 54 pools of Ctenocephalides felis fleas contained DNA of Rickettsia felis.

Rickettsia felis rickettsiosis in Yucatán.

Three patients with fever, exanthem, headache, and central-nervous-system involvement were diagnosed with Rickettsia fells infection by specific PCR of blood or skin and seroconversion to surrogate Rickettsia antigens. Although R. felis's relationship to other Rickettsia species is known and the pathogenic potential of this clade is well documented, R.

Serologic study of the prevalence of rickettsiosis in Yucatán: evidence for a prevalent spotted fever group rickettsiosis.

Because of the discovery of a spotted fever group rickettsiosis with signs and symptoms similar to dengue fever in Yucatan, Mexico, immunofluorescence assay (IFA) serology was performed on sera from 390 persons selected from a representative geographic distribution of rural Yucatan to detect antibodies reactive with Rickettsia rickettsii, R. akari, a Thai strain (TT-118) that is most closely related to a rickettsia identified in Amblyomma cajennense ticks in southern Texas, and R. typhi.