• Jara Llenas-García, Ramiro Cañaveral, Marta Arsuaga, Begoña Monge-Maillo, Inés Oliveira-Souto, Diego Torrús-Tendero, Rodríguez GuardadoAzucenaAInternal Medicine Clinical Management Area, Translational Microbiology Group, ISPA, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, 33011 Oviedo, Spain., Eva Calabuig, Adrián Sánchez-Montalvá, Ángel Domínguez-Castellano, Fernando de la Calle-Prieto, and José A Pérez-Molina.
• Internal Medicine Department, Infectious Diseases Section, Hospital Vega Baja, 03314 Orihuela, Spain.
• J Travel Med. 2023 May 18; 30 (3).

BackgroundRickettsioses are emerging zoonotic diseases with worldwide prevalence, recognized as a cause of imported fever in travellers and migrants. Our objective is to describe the microbiological, clinical and epidemiological characteristics of imported rickettsioses in travellers and migrants included in a Spanish collaborative network database.MethodsThis multicentre retrospective observational study was nested in +Redivi, the Cooperative Network for the Study of Infections Imported by Immigrants and Travellers. We asked collaborating centres for microbiological, clinical and epidemiological data on the rickettsiosis cases from the inception of the network in 2009 to December 2020.ResultsFifty-four cases of imported rickettsioses were included; 35 (64.8%) patients were men, and the median age was 37 years (interquartile range 26, 51.2). Only 7.4% of patients were travellers visiting friends and relatives, and 5.6% were migrants. The most frequent travel destination (38.9%) was South Africa, and 90.7% engaged in a high-risk activity. Twenty-seven patients (50.0%) started presenting symptoms after their return to Spain. The most frequent symptoms were febrile syndrome (55.6%) and cutaneous manifestations (27.8%). Most diagnoses (63.0%) were confirmed by serology. Only a few cases (9.3%) required hospitalization. All participants had a full recovery.ConclusionsClinicians should suspect rickettsial diseases in travellers coming from high-risk areas, especially Southern Africa, who have engaged in activities in rural areas and natural parks. Doxycycline should be considered in the empiric treatment of imported fever of travellers coming from those areas or who have engaged in high-risk activities. There is a need to improve access to molecular diagnosis of rickettsiosis in Spain.© International Society of Travel Medicine 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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