| Description: |
Relapsing fever (RF) is a disease caused by several spirochetes of the genus Borrelia. Relapsing fever borrelioses are characterized by recurrent febrile episodes and spirochetemia. There are 2 forms; louse-borne relapsing fever (also known as urban or epidemic RF) is caused by Borrelia recurrentis, and is transmitted by the body louse Pediculus humanus humanus. It currently known in Ethiopia. Endemic tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is a zoonotic disease transmitted worldwide by softbody ticks of the genus Ornithodoros. It is caused by at least 15 distinct Borrelia species throughout the world, including Borrelia hermsii and Borrelia turicatae, carried by the ticks Ornithodoros hermsii and O.turicatae respectively (modified from PubMed 16965346). B.hermsii lives in chipmunks and tree squirrels in high-altitude forests of California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia. B.hermsii evades the mammalian immune system by periodically switching expression among members of two multigene families that encode immunogenic, antigenically distinct outer surface proteins (modified from PubMed 9453591). |
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