Rocky Mountain spotted fever, an underdiagnosed cause of headache

Abstract

Introduction
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a tick-borne rickettsiosis. The main clinical signs and symptoms are fever, severe headache, rashes and myalgia. Endothelium tropism can lead to vasculitis, thrombosis, and hemorrhage. In addition, the disease can generate neurological impairment through meningoencephalitis, characterized by holocranial headache. It is considered difficult to diagnose and underreported because nonspecific signs and it is commonly confused with dengue.

Objectives
To analyze the epidemiology of spotted fever in São Paulo (state) between 2010 and 2020.

Methodology
The work is a descriptive cross-sectional study that statistically analyzes the cases of spotted fever in São Paulo between 2010 and 2020 through data obtained by the Information System of Notifiable Diseases (SINAN). The proportions of spotted fever cases were calculated according to: sex, age group, race/color, infection environment, confirmation criteria and evolution. The correlation coefficient between human development index (HDI) and that of the reporting city and mortality was estimated. The number of inhabitants and HDI were from the latest IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) census in 2010.

Results
There are 869 cases were confirmed (representing 44% of the country's cases), of which 324 are from the metropolitan region of Campinas. The correlation coefficient between HDI and deaths is 0.06 and the average HDI of the cities is 0.79. (To see the complete abstract, please, check out the PDF).