Relapsing fever is an infection caused by certain bacteria in the genus Borrelia. It is a vector-borne disease that is transmitted through louse or soft-bodied tick bites. It is not spread from animals or person-to-person. Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is found in Africa, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Asia, and certain areas in the western US and Canada. Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) occurs in epidemics amid poor living conditions, famine and war in the developing world; it is currently prevalent in Ethiopia and Sudan.

Most people who are infected get sick around 5-15 days after they are bitten by the tick. The symptoms may include a sudden fever, chills, headaches, and muscle or joint aches, and nausea; a rash may also occur. These symptoms continue for 2-9 days, then disappear. This cycle may continue for several weeks if the person is not treated. Relapsing Fever is easily treated with 1-2 weeks of antibiotics. Most people improve within 24 hours of starting antibiotics. Complications and death due to Relapsing Fever are rare.

Relapsing fever is a candidate etiology for a mysterious series of plagues in late medieval and early renaissance-era England referred to at the time as Sweating_Sickness but which have not recurred in epidemic form since the 16th Century.

See also

• Lyme disease

External Links

• CDC: Relapsing Fever
• eMedicine: Tick-borne Diseases, Relapsing Fever by Jonathan A Edlow, MD
• Cutler SJ (2006). "Possibilities for relapsing fever reemergence." Emerg Infect Dis 12 (3) on the Internet. Full Text

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