How to protect yourself from Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Children under 10 more likely to die from the tick-borne illness
December 15, 2023
IN THE NEWS: The rise of a deadly tick-borne disease has led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to issue a warning to the public. Since July, five cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been reported, three of which resulted in fatalities.
Dr. Shruti Gohil, an infectious diseases expert at UCI Health, told Healthline that the disease attacks one specific age group.
“If you look at the really high-risk cases of people who actually go on to…die, it’s the younger ones. It’s children…everyone is at risk, sure, but children have a propensity for more consequences.
I love that the CDC issued this warning with just a few cases. The reason I love it is because for rare diseases, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you will miss it more.”
Early symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever can include fever, loss of appetite, headache, rash, nausea and vomiting, stomach pain and muscle pain.
Gohil is an assistant professor of infectious diseases at UCI School of Medicine and the associate medical director of UCI Health Epidemiology and Infection Prevention. She is a member of The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society of the Healthcare Epidemiologists in America. Her clinical interests include hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, communicable disease transmission and multidrug resistant organism infections.
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