Clinical significance
- The first symptoms of relapsing fever: 3-10 days after exposure to an infected arthropod. (high fever, severe headache, muscle pain, and general malaise)
- During febrile period, lasts 3-5 days: spirochetes in the blood
- The fever abates along with the number of spirochetes.
- Recovery: a period of 4-10 day, a recurrence of the initial symptoms
- In fatal cases, the spirochete invades many organs of the body (heart, spleen, liver, and kidney), with death generally due to myocarditis with shock.