Biomedica
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Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a highly lethal infectious disease, particularly if specific treatment with doxycycline is given belatedly. ⋯ Rocky Mountain spotted fever remains as one of the most lethal infectious diseases, which may be related not only to the lack of diagnostic suspicion and delayed administration of doxycycline, but to genotypic characteristics of Rickettsia rickettsii that may play a role in the variability of the fatality rate that has been reported in other geographical regions where the disease is endemic.