Hi there gang,

This reference is to a fairly technical article about Tick Bite Fever in the latest issue of Emerging Diseases. At the end of the main article are many citations of other articles about Tick Bite Fever. If you are willing to wade through some of the science, there is good information about the condition, and how to prevent and treat it:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no09/05-1540.htm?s_cid=eid05_1540_e

Thanks for humoring me.

LD

Whew! Do you have an English translation?

Having suffered through a case of this (not in 12-ounce cans), perhaps this will help.

I apparently was bitten by a tick just above my right ankle sometime during a hunt in RSA back in May of 2005. A few days later, a black spot (scabby in appearance) with a red ring around it formed on the spot. I had a low grade fever and chills with it, along with a general feeling of malaise. Having no antibiotics along, I toughed it out until I got home.

When I got home, I went to my family doctor immediately. He has spent some time in Africa, and recognized it immediately. His prescription for two antibiotics started to have an effect almost immediately. Within a few days, I was back to whatever normal is for me.

Rickettsiae are tiny organisms, related to bacteria. They are commonly spread by ticks. One related disease found in the US is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Lyme disease is not caused by a rickettsia, but by another type of organism called a spirochaete.

Hope this helps,
George

both my wife & me have had it on different occasions - doxy has worked well on it in about 2 days

I had to pull an all nighter at the clinic with a West Nile Virus Encephalitis patient. I was going through my web journals and thought I should share the misery with you all .

As aregular hunter I got to know tick bite fever very well. Suffered from it about three times a year for many years. A visit to my GP, get a prescription for antibiotics and a few days later I'm fine.

Then I was told that you can gain immunity to the disease, if you let it run it's course once and not take any antibiotics. That was a hellish suffering with severe headache and muscle pain. It was really not pleasant! But I've never had any tick bite fever again!

I think that many regular hunters in South Africa are probably also immune to the disease?

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

I suffered a nasty little stint when I got bit last year in Zim. The target formed about midway through the hunt. Went to the doctor as soon as I got home and he started me on antibiotics. Was about 2-3 months before I was feeling right, though. Still have the scar from the bite, or, I guess the reaction from the bite.

For those hunters that do not live in Africa, I would not suggest letting the disease run it's course. Get the anitbiotics.

It is thought by some doctors that early onset of arthritis is associated with these types of organisms. They can get into the joints where the blood supply is low (few white cells) and damage the surfaces there - since they take the longest to die off there.

I have had two doctors tell me this, it may or may not be coincidental that both were Oriental. One a Philippina, one a Vietnamese.

Now you all can hear the real truth from Alf, lawndart, et al, while I'm off looking for buff in TZ!

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:
I had to pull an all nighter at the clinic with a West Nile Virus Encephalitis patient. I was going through my web journals and thought I should share the misery with you all .

lawndart,

What is the general long term prognosis for West Nile patients? In general do they suffer long term effects from the disease and in your professional opinion how common is this disease becoming in the U.S.A.?

Thanks

Having had the dubvious "pleasure" of a case of the ATBF I can assure you that this reading was both interesting and a painful reminder of the worries associated with intercontinental travel.

Apparently I was the other white meat in africa, all to familiar with the ole' african tick fever. At first I thought I had malaria but thank goodness it was tick fever. A round of antibiotics cleared it up. Remember after a round of antibiotics replenish your normal flora with acidopholus (sp) yogurt etc.
TIP when posing for pictures with you Buff, don't lean against him. There's a mass exodus going on, and you look like the promiseland.

Surestrike,

West Nile Virus Disease is turning out to be pretty bad ju-ju.

I think most people will recover to near baseline in 6-24 months. One out of one hundred will die.

The harder you get hit initially, and the older you are; the less likely it is that you will have a full recovery.

I have eleven patients with full blown West Nile Virus Disease right now (I anticipate another twenty this season).

One person is back to full activity (after six weeks). No one else is working or going to school on a full schedule. Half are still in bed fourteeen housrs a day.

I believe a significant portion will go on to develop chronic fatigue/post viral fatigue syndromes.

My main interest area in tropical medicine has always been viral flavivirus zoonoses in naive human hosts. God knew I was feeling too puny to go to Central or Eastern Africa, so he sent the virus here. I am blessed, and He has quite a sense of humor.

LD

PS Why do we call internal medicine doctors "fleas"? Because they are the last creatures to leave a dying body. (Since hillbilly general practitioners like myself make no money, we are allowed to make bad jokes about our better heeled bretheren.)

The Eastern Cape coastal areas are a problem with especially the little pepper ticks. There is a simple precaution we take after both my wife and I came down with tick bite fever. We stay on a small property outside of Port Elizabeth with lots of indigenous bush and ticks are plentiful.

We use a product called Bayticol, made by Bayer Germany. The dilution is very low (20ml to 10 liters of water) and we use a pressurised sprayer to spray our clothes on the washing line, while still wet after washing. It dries odourless and will last through two or three subsequent washes, should we forget to spray.

Ticks then try to climb off as fast as they got on and, even if they stay on, they do not attach. Any contact with sprayed clothing or animals are also lethal to ticks. We spray our dogs once a month and they are completely free of ticks.

I can vouch that Baiticol works. I always have it in my medical bag. I never had tick bite fever.

I'll underline what Jaco said: Bayticol works! Since I was first introduced to it, I've hardly ever been bitten by ticks. My ATBF experience long precedes Bayticol - it was in the diesel oil, parafin, kakiebos days!

Gerard, you seem to use another formulation - I know it only as an aerosol can - and a very costly one at that too! Please let us know what formulation you use. Or PM if you would rather not advocate use of a product that is not registered for that particular application?

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

Bayticol is available as a concentrate in 1 Liter bottles and is called Bayticol Dip and Spray. It is recommended for control of ticks on animals and we soon found how well it works on clothing. Try and spray two lively dogs without getting it on yourself!. It is very economical. If I recall correctly, the 1 liter was a little over R120.00. We have been using the same bottle for more than a year. It beats the aerosol hands down on price. We use a pump pressurised sprayer and make up ten liters once a month or so.

I also had the misfortune to have tick bite fever after hunting nyala in Natal a few years ago. My doctor in Tucson refused to believe the wound on my inside thigh was from a tick. As others have described it, I had a target-like wound and extremely high temps, 103-105 degrees without letup for more than a week. My doctor kept saying I'd been bitten by a brown recuse spider and treated me for that type of bite. I knew there was a certain antibiotic that could cure tick bite fever and kept asking him to call the CDC in Atlanta for info about it. Eventually I was taken to a hospital, the ER doctor listened to me, and treated me as the first doctor should have done days earlier.

Bill Quimby

What antibiotics should be used?

Thanks, PG

I have no idea, but whatever it is, it works. My temperature dropped overnight and the wound cleared up in a week or so.

A question for someone who knows something about tick bite fever: Am I immune after my episode?

Bill

Doxycycline or one of the macrolides (Azithromycin, Clarithromycin, Erythromycin) should do the trick.

You are not immune after your first go around.

Viruses are forever, but spirochetes can f**k you over anew, each and every time.

God I love tropical medicine.

LD

I will be on Doxy as my malaria prophylaxis. Does this mean I should be immune, so to speak?

According to Bayer, Bayticol is toxic to humans. Should that be a concern?

quote:

Originally posted by lee440:
I will be on Doxy as my malaria prophylaxis. Does this mean I should be immune, so to speak?

Didn't work for me. That is what I was taking for malaria prevention, but the tick fever nailed me.

Bayticol Dip and Spray concentrate is not registered for use on humans. As with the aerosol, which is registered for human use, there is the warning to avoid spraying directly on skin. The active substances of the two products are exactly the same. Trials on dogs used a 20X overdosage applied weekly insted of monthly for six months. No dogs became sick. I figure it is a matter of the expense of trials and registration versus the aerosol making good money anyway. The company would be bound by the terms of registration in what they may recommend and I would prefer any "risk" from Bayticol to the risk of cardiac complications as a result of tick bite fever.

My wife was bitten and got TB fever, followed almost immediately by the onset of reactive arthritis, characterised by "sausage toe", and other aches pains and general suffering.

Took a while to go away.

Me I got bit in the army in the early seventies and I have never had it since. (Fever, that is)