Dr. Dumler, who has spent nearly three decades studying the life-threatening, tick-borne infection known as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, highlights the importance of the recent outbreak in Arizona, as the first confirmed cases that could be traced back to ticks carried into to the state on feral dogs.
The population of this group of animals has markedly increased, along with the number of ticks.
The disease is apparently most often distinguished by a spotty rash that appears five to ten days after the first signs of infection.
It has been largely confined to the South Central and Southeastern United States, though a few cases have been reported in all 48 continental states.
According to Dumler, the number of people infected with Rocky Mountain spotted fever has peaked for the third known time this century, with more than 1,800 cases reported nationally in 2003 and 2004.
But scientists believe the number of unreported cases is much greater.
The fever is fatal in up to 10 percent of those who contract it.
Dumler believes that the best means of curbing the potentially deadly impact of the disease, is the growing awareness among physicians about the disease’s early signs and symptoms.
The fever can be effectively treated with specific antibiotics if caught early.
He says that unlike its more widespread cousin, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a dangerous and potentially fatal disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report in their latest study, on 16 cases in which two children contracted the fever and died.
The first symptoms are apparently very hard to distinguish from many other illnesses.
Scientist say the first signs are body-wide aches and pains accompanied by headache and a sudden high fever, sometimes as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and symptoms may include sore throat and nausea.
The spotty rash, which occurs in at least 85 percent of patients, does not appear until later in the infection and resembles a pinpoint pattern of pink-to-red spots sometimes over the entire body.