David B. Lackman

A Review of Information on Rickettsialpox in the United States

Greenberg et aZ.,7. and Rose 8 have written complete clinical descriptions of rickettsialpox in man. The incubation period seems to be 10 to 24 days. One infection, self-induced by injection of a patient’s blood, had an incubation period of 11 days.’ An entomologist working at the original site of discovery of the disease became ill with rickettsialpox 23 days after reporting for duty. Another patient became ill 24 days after returning, from vacation, to her infested apartment.~’ [) Onset of fever is sudden and is accompanied by chills, sweating, headache, and backache. A rash develops within 1 to 4 days as a single crop of papules which soon develop a vesicle in the middle, The vesicles are resorbed or dry forming black crusts which fall off within a week. The rash bears some resemblance to