Rocky Mountain spotted fever was first identified in the 1800s in the Rocky Mountains. Signs and symptoms
Spotted fever can be very difficult to diagnose in its early stages, due to the similarity of symptoms with many different diseases.People infected with R. rickettsii usually notice symptoms following an incubation period of one to two weeks after a tick bite. The early clinical presentation of Rocky Mountain spotted fever is nonspecific and may resemble a variety of other infectious and noninfectious diseases. Initial symptoms:
Fever
Nausea
Emesis (vomiting)
Severe headache
Muscle pain
MalaiseLater signs and symptoms:
Maculopapular rash
Petechial rash
Abdominal pain
Joint pain
Conjunctivitis
ForgetfulnessThe classic triad of findings for this disease are fever, rash, and history of tick bite. However, this combination is often not identified when patients initially present for care. The rash has a centripetal, or "inward" pattern of spread, meaning it begins at the extremities and courses towards the trunk. Rash
The rash first appears two to five days after the onset of fever, and it is often quite subtle. Younger patients usually develop the rash earlier than older patients. Most often the rash begins as small, flat, pink, nonitchy spots (macules) on the wrists, forearms, and ankles. These spots turn pale when pressure is applied and eventually become raised on the skin. The characteristic red, spotted (petechial) rash of Rocky Mountain spotted fever is usually not seen until the sixth day or later after onset of symptoms, but this type of rash occurs in only 35 to 60% of patients with Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
This vaccine worked, and for some years after it was used by people in that region to convert the illness from one with high fatality rate (albeit low incidence) to one that could be either prevented entirely (for many of them) or modified to a non-deadly form (for the rest). Today there is no commercially available vaccine for RMSF because, unlike in the 1920s when Spencer and colleagues developed one, antibiotics are now available to treat the disease, so prevention by vaccination is no longer the sole defense against likely death. Much of the early research was conducted at Rocky Mountain Laboratories a part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The schoolhouse laboratory of 1922–1924, filled with ticks in various phases of the life cycle, is identifiable in retrospect as a biohazard, although the team did not fully appreciate it at first. The deaths of Gettinger and Cowan, and the near death of the janitors son, were the results of inadequate biocontainment, but in the 1920s, the elaborate biocontainment systems of today had not been invented. Society
Research into this disease in Montana is a sub-plot of the 1937 film Green Light, starring Errol Flynn. Some of the researchers who perished are mentioned by name and their photographs are shown. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a big part of the 1947 Republic Pictures movie Driftwood, starring Walter Brennan, James Bell, Dean Jagger, Natalie Wood, and Hobart Cavanaugh.