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a Laboratory of Rickettsial Ecology, Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow 123098, Russia b Department of the Infectious Diseases, Far Eastern State Medical University, Khabarovsk 680000, Russia c Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Médecine, CNRS UMR 6020 27, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, Cedex 05, France
Key Words: Rickettsia • rickettsiosis • tick-borne rickettsiosis • spotted fever group • epidemic typhus • Russia
Address for correspondence: Oleg Y. Mediannikov, Laboratory of Rickettsial Ecology, Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, ul. Gamalei, 18, Moscow, Russia, 123098. Voice: +7 095 193 43 10; fax: +7 095 193 61 85. e-mail: olegusss1{at}mail.ru
Currently, several rickettsioses are officially being reported in the Russian Federation. These are epidemic typhus and Brill–Zinsser disease, both caused by Rickettsia prowazekii which has a historic prevalence in Russia. Nowadays only single sporadic cases of R. prowazekii infection are reported. The last significant outbreak occurred in 1997 in a mental nursing home, where 29 cases were identified. Registered morbidity of typhus in Russia varies from 0 to 0.01 per thousand for the last decade. Siberian tick typhus, caused by R. sibirica, is registered on a large territory from Pacific coasts to Western Siberia, and its incidence continuously increases, varying between 2.5 and 4.0 thousand officially registered cases per year. Astrakhan spotted fever, caused by R. conorii subsp. caspia has been recognized since 1983. Recently, Far Eastern tick-borne rickettsiosis, caused by R. heilongjiangensis, has been described. Several other pathogenic spotted fever group rickettsiae have been detected and isolated from ticks in Russia; however, they have not yet been linked with clinical cases in these regions.
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