A Case of Rickettsiosis in a Patient with Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6pd) Deficiency

Rickettsia is a group of Gram-negative intra cellular obligatory bacteria. Rickettsia species are an important cause of infectious disease in people and animals. Fleas, ticks, mite, lice etc., serve as vectors who transfer the rickettsia from animal to humans.Rickettsiosis is one of the oldest known vector-borne diseases(Blanda et al., 2020). Usually it is a nonspecific self-limiting febrile illness without major complications. Fever, headache, mild-rash, myalgia's and anorexia are the most common presenting signs and symptoms. Laboratory findings include elevated transaminase levels, hyponatremia, thrombocytopenia and anemia (Merhej et al., 2014). The disease is usually of benign nature. Severe complications are reported in about 6% of cases. Patients may present with organ involvement, severe vasculitis and multi organ failure (Oteo and Portillo, 2012) and the mortality rate is up to 2.5%(Giammanco et al., 2005; Raoult et al., 1986).