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A potentially lethal disease go around by ticks latterly sickened five multitude who had traveled to or lived in Baja California , Mexico , and three of those patients have died , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) warned .
The disease , calledRocky Mountain pick out fever(RMSF ) , is due to the bacteriumRickettsia rickettsiiand spreads to world throughtick bite . If provide untreated , the contagion can rapidly progress and lead to serious complications , include nerve and organ damage , fond paralysis , red ink of bladder or intestine ascendence , and gangrene , which may require amputation .
The brown dog tick can spread a disease called Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
If left untreated , RMSF can top to destruction — before effective treatments were usable for the status , face - human death ratesranged from 20 % to 80 % .
Between late July and Dec. 8 , 2023 , the CDC confirmed five cases of RMSF in people who had traveled to or exist in Tecate , Baja California , the federal agency reported in ahealth alarm published Friday(Dec . 8) . Three were U.S. occupier , and two were occupant of Mexico . They ’d all been in Tecate , a metropolis about 40 miles ( 64 kilometre ) southeast of San Diego , within the two weeks prior to develop symptoms , but all were diagnose and treat in Southern California .
All five affected role were hospitalized , and three died .
Related : Your skin should be toxic to ticks . Here ’s why it ’s not .
" RMSF isendemicin multiple borderline states in northern Mexico , admit but not exclusive to Baja California , Sonora , Chihuahua , Coahuila , and Nuevo León , " the CDC observe . Health care provider should consider RMSF as a possible diagnosing in patients who have recently traveled to northern Mexico and have develop an unexplained fever . U.S. residents should attempt aesculapian attention if they or a family member has recently locomote to northerly Mexico and developed a febricity , headache or skin rash within two week of returning to the U.S.
MD should consider starting these patients on the standard treatment , the antibiotic Vibramycin , if their symptoms and change of location account point to RMSF . " Do not delay treatment pending the result of a verificatory testing ground trial run , " the CDC advised . " Early handling with Vibramycin saves lives . "
The early symptom of RMSF resemble those of many other disease , puddle it tricky to catch early .
These initial symptoms include fever , headache , loss of appetence , vomiting and breadbasket pain . In most people , the infection also causes a skin rash that often starts on the wrists and ankles before propagate to the rest period of the body . The rash does n’t typicallyemerge until 24-hour interval after the pyrexia starts , and it may change appearance throughout the illness , appear like red-faced splotch or pinpoint dots , for illustration .
If not handle quickly — within five days of the first symptoms — RMSF can get to cause confusion , truncation of breath , apathy , weakness or seizures . At that point , the most serious complications that can go to lifelong handicap or last can occur .
In 2022 , doctor account 88 vitrine of RMSF in the Baja California region , and 36 , or 47 % , were fatal , according to theCalifornia Health Alert internet . By comparison , there was one probable and one confirmed case among San Diego County resident in 2022 , and no death .
" Half of all people who die from this disease succumb within 8 solar day of sickness onset , " the CDC alerting states . " Untreated disease is often fatal . " The causa - fatality rate for treated RMSF , however , is around 3 % to 5 % .
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RMSF is not unparalleled to Mexico . Three tick species spread the disease within the U.S. Cases are most normally report in North Carolina , Tennessee , Missouri , Arkansas and Oklahoma butoccur throughout the nation . Between 3,000 and 7,000 casesof RMSF and other types of spotted febricity rickettsioses are report in the U.S. each year ; these conditions can be difficult to differentiate with available diagnostic tests .
masses can protect themselves from RMSF , whether at home or abroad , bytaking measures to prevent tick bitesand regularly curb their dogs for check mark .
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