Three people have been killed in a Rocky Mountain fever outbreak as the deadly tick-borne disease spreads.
The rare but deadly tick-borne disease outbreak hospitalized at least five patients in Southern California and claimed three lives on Friday was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to physicians and the general public. The patients had either visited or resided in a Mexican border city in recent months.
The primary carrier of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is the bite of an infected tick, which typically feeds on dogs. Though uncommon in the US, over 2,000 cases—resulting in hundreds of deaths—have been documented in the previous five years in northern Mexico, where it has spread to epidemic proportions.
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The CDC stated in a health alert that the five individuals had received their diagnoses since late July. Within two weeks before being ill, all had visited or resided in Tecate, in the state of Baja California in northern Mexico.
Four of the five individuals were pediatric patients who sought care in Southern Californian hospitals. To preserve the people's privacy, CDC representatives declined to give further information on the individuals. Two of the patients were Mexican siblings, while three of the patients were residents of the United States. The CDC noted that one fatality was an adult and the other two were juvenile children.
Chief medical officer Christopher Paddock of the CDC, an authority on the illness, stated that the organization wishes to notify physicians in towns and cities close to the border between the United States and Mexico in order to increase awareness during the holiday season, when many residents of Southern California and northern Mexico may be visiting family and friends.
The organization has released a health travel advisory on the outbreak, saying that RMSF has been discovered in numerous northern Mexican cities.
