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CDC Health Alert Network: Severe and Fatal Confirmed Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever among People with Recent Travel to Tecate, Mexico

  • 1.  CDC Health Alert Network: Severe and Fatal Confirmed Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever among People with Recent Travel to Tecate, Mexico

    ASCP Ambassador
    Posted 12-14-2023 14:45

    Distributed via the CDC Health Alert Network
    December 8, 2023, 4:15 PM ET
    CDCHAN-00502

    Summary
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is issuing this Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory to notify healthcare providers and the public about an outbreak of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) among people in the United States with recent travel to or residence in the city of Tecate, state of Baja California, Mexico. RMSF is a severe, rapidly progressive, and often deadly disease transmitted by the bite of infected ticks, although many patients do not recall being bitten by a tick. Doxycycline is the treatment of choice for patients of all ages. As of December 8, 2023, five patients have been diagnosed with confirmed RMSF since late July 2023; all had travel to or residence in Tecate within 2 weeks of illness onset. RMSF is endemic in multiple border states in northern Mexico, including but not exclusive to Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León. Healthcare providers should consider RMSF in their differential diagnosis of patients who have reported recent travel to Tecate, Mexico, or other areas of northern Mexico and subsequently develop signs or symptoms of an unexplained severe febrile illness. Consider initiating doxycycline based on presumptive clinical and epidemiologic findings, and do not delay treatment pending the result of a confirmatory laboratory test. Early treatment with doxycycline saves lives.



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    Rodney E. Rohde, PhD, MS, SM(ASCP)CM,SVCM,MBCM, FACSc
    Regents' Professor, Texas State University System
    University Distinguished Chair & Professor, Medical Laboratory Science [MLS] Program
    TEDx Speaker & Global Fellow – Global Citizenship Alliance
    Texas State Honorary Professor of International Studies
    Associate Director, Translational Health Research Initiative @txst_THR
    Past President, Texas Association for CLS

    Texas State University
    MLS Program, Encino Hall 350B [office ENC 363]
    601 University Drive
    San Marcos, TX 78666-4616
    512-245-3500 [CLS suite]; 512-245-2562 [office]
    Email: rrohde@txstate.edu
    Pronouns: he/him/his
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