Rickettsiae and rickettsial diseases in Croatia: Implications for travel medicine.

Aim: To review the current state of knowledge concerning rickettsiae and rickettsioses in Croatia and to discuss their implications for travellers.

Methods: The PubMed database was searched from 1991 to 2015 by combining the words "rickettsia," "rickettsiosis", "travellers" and "Croatia".

Results: Since 1969, Croatia appears to be free of epidemic typhus (ET) caused by Rickettsia prowazekii and the last case of Brill-Zinsser disease was recorded in 2008.

A case of Mediterranean spotted fever associated with severe respiratory distress syndrome.

Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) is usually a mild endemic rickettsial disease occurring in southern Croatia. We have reported the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of an acute MSF case associated with severe respiratory distress syndrome and hemodynamical instability. The patient recovered completely after antimicrobial treatment.

Association of Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) with bladder cancer in Croatian patients.

As the seventh most common human malignancy, bladder cancer represents a global health problem. In addition to well-recognized risk factors such as smoking and exposure to chemicals, various infectious agents have been implicated as cofactors in the pathogenesis of urothelial malignancies. The aim of the present study was to assess the possible association of viral infection and bladder cancer in Croatian patients.

Asymptomatic Leishmania infantum infections in humans living in endemic and non-endemic areas of Croatia, 2007 to 2009.

The prevalence of asymptomatic leishmaniasis in the general population of Croatia has not been studied to date. To assess the prevalence of Leishmania infantum specific IgG antibodies among immunocompetent residents of Croatia, sera from 2,035 persons (eastern coast of Adriatic Sea, n=1,186; Adriatic islands, n=653; mainland, n=196), were tested by an enzyme immunoassay. A total of 231 (11.

Antimicrobial susceptibility of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria collected from countries in Eastern Europe: results from the Tigecycline Evaluation and Surveillance Trial (T.E.S.T.) 2004-2010.

The Tigecycline Evaluation and Surveillance Trial (T.E.S.