Rickettsia typhi central nervous system infection. Academic Article

abstract

• A 39 year-old male was residing along the south coast of Texas, the USA, presented with fever, myalgias, headaches, and weight loss for ten days. Symptoms and manifestations progressed to include nuchal rigidity, photophobia, hyponatremia, thrombocytopenia, and transaminitis despite the intravenous administration of ceftriaxone and azithromycin. A lumbar puncture performed in the Emergency Department yielded pleocytosis and glucose cerebrospinal fluid/serum ratio of 0.35, suggestive of meningoencephalitis. Conglomerate data raised the suspicion of meningitis secondary to a zoonotic acquired infection, which was later confirmed to be Rickettsia typhi. Doxycycline is the drug of choice for the suspected Rickettsia disease. After doxycycline administration, the patient improved and was discharged home asymptomatic.

authors

• Stevens, Mark

published proceedings

• IDCases

author list (cited authors)

• Talhelm, C. F., Helms, J. L., Tran, L. T., Contreras, B. X., Stevens, M. L., Sierra-Hoffman, M., Castro-Lainez, M. T., & Deliz, R. J.

citation count

• 1

complete list of authors

• Talhelm, Collin F||Helms, Jessica L||Tran, Liem T||Contreras, Brian X||Stevens, Mark L||Sierra-Hoffman, Miguel||Castro-Lainez, Miriam T||Deliz, Rafael J

publication date

• January 2020

publisher

• Elsevier  Publisher

published in

• IDCases  Journal

keywords

• Central Nervous System
• Doxycycline
• Endemic
• Murine Typhus
• Rickettsia

PubMed Central ID

• 32509531

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00852

start page

• e00852

end page

• e00852

volume

• 21

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00852