BORRELIOSIS, RELAPSING FEVER, SOLDIERS - ISRAEL

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Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 11:20:29 -0400 (EDT)

From: ProMED-mail <promed@...>

Subject: PRO/EDR> Borreliosis, relapsing fever, soldiers - Israel

BORRELIOSIS, RELAPSING FEVER, SOLDIERS - ISRAEL

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A ProMED-mail post

<http://www.promedmail.org>

[see also:

1999

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Borreliosis, relapsing fever - Sudan (south) 19990429220242

Borreliosis, relapsing fever - Sudan (south) (04) 19990511135434

1998

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Tickborne disease - USA (California) (02) 980425083212]

Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 18:11:55 +0300

From: Avi Itzhaki <nogavi@...>

A febrile disease has been reported the last week in nine soldiers, a

few

days after participating in a field exercise overnight, in the Negev

desert, in the south of Israel.

A number of the soldiers have been admitted to various hospitals in

Israel,

all with high fever. In five of the soldiers the diagnosis relapsing

fever

was made after an initial blood smear revealed spirochetes typical of

the

_Borrelia_ spp.

All nine soldiers were treated with tetracyclines. A number of them

developed Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, which was expressed as rigor

and an

elevated temperature after the first dose of the drug. One of the

subjects

developed jaundice. As I know, no other complications were observed

and all

nine soldiers are doing well.

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Avi Itzhaki M.D.

Infectious disease unit

Assaf-Harofe Medical Center

Israel

e-mail: nogavi@...

[Dr. Itzhaki has indicated to me that the above information is derived

from

his personal observations, a subsequent telephone poll of colleagues

at

other hospitals, and that it has been confirmed by military

authorities in

Israel. There are tick-borne and louse-borne forms of relapsing

fever.

The latter is generally restricted to Ethiopia and the Sudan.

Occasional

outbreaks of tick-borne relapsing fever among military personnel in

Israel

have been reported during the past several decades, as have rare cases

in

tourists returning home from Israel. Tick-borne relapsing fever is

also

endemic in the southwestern USA. - Mod.ES]

.......................................es

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