Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Description  A tick-borne bacterial disease called Rickettsia, causes vessels to leak. It affects the cells in the lining of your blood vessels.

Symptoms  Symptoms vary from every person but most victims endure severe headaches, high fevers, nausea, vomiting, and muscle pain.  After a few days a rash will appear on the wrists and ankles and later spread over your entire body.

Causes  This illness is caused by the bite of an infected tick.

Cure and worst case scenario  If caught soon enough the fever can be taken care of through early treatment of antibiotics.  Doxycycline is the first medication used.  If not treated it can cause serious damage to internal organs, and in severe cases death.

3 Facts  1. First identified in the Rocky Mountain wood tick which gave it its name.  2. most commonly found in south eastern parts of the united states as well as Canada, Mexico, and South America.  3. was originally called “black measles” because of how the rash looked in the late stages.

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