From Medscape Medical News, June 24, 2015:

by Veronica Hackethal, MD

The Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) epidemic that emerged in 2003 has hit American Indian communities in Arizona hardest. Estimated economic losses from the epidemic on two reservations have totalled $13.2 million, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Indian Health Service (IHS) published online June 1 in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

“[RMSF] is completely preventable. State, federal and tribal health authorities have been working together since the start of the epidemic to build effective community-based tick control programs, and these efforts have produced remarkable reductions in human cases,” first author Naomi Drexler, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Division of Vector-borne Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia, said in a news release. READ MORE