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Rickettsioses in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Author(s) -
PAROLA PHILIPPE
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1374.005
Subject(s) - spotted fever , rickettsia conorii , typhus , rickettsiosis , rickettsia typhi , virology , biology , murine typhus , vector (molecular biology) , tick borne disease , tick , rickettsia , virus , recombinant dna , biochemistry , gene
Although rickettsioses are among the oldest known vector‐borne zoonoses, several species or subspecies of rickettsias have been identified in recent years as emerging pathogens throughout the world including in sub‐Saharan Africa. To date, six tick‐borne spotted fever group pathogenic rickettsias are known to occur in sub‐Saharan Africa, including Rickettsia conorii conorii , the agent of Mediterranean spotted fever; R. conorii caspia , the agent of Astrakhan fever; R. africae , the agent of African tick‐bite fever; R. aeschlimannii ; R. sibirica mongolitimonae ; and R. massiliae . On the other hand, fleas have long been known as vectors of the ubiquitous murine typhus, a typhus group rickettsiosis induced by R. typhi . However, a new spotted fever rickettsia, R. felis , has also been found to be associated with fleas, to be a human pathogen, and to be present in sub‐Saharan Africa. Finally, R. prowazekii the agent of louse‐borne epidemic typhus continues to strikes tens to hundreds of thousands of persons who live in Sub‐Saharan with civil war, famine and poor conditions. We present an overview of these rickettsioses occurring in sub‐Saharan Africa, focusing on the epidemiological aspects of emerging diseases.