SynthesisPLoS neglected tropical diseases2022
Tick borne relapsing fever - a systematic review and analysis of the literature.
Synthesis in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- [West African tick-borne relapsing fever, a neglected disease of major public health importance in Senegal].Medecine tropicale et sante internationale · 2025Pooled it
- Relapsing fever revisited: New insights into neglected borrelial infections.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Review
- Molecular detection of relapsing fevermSphere · 2026Article
- Article
- Prevalence, distribution, and phylogenetics of the tick-borne relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia turicatae in the soft tick Ornithodoros turicata americanus in Florida.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Investigation of neglected bacterial pathogens provides molecular and serological evidence of Bartonella spp. in patients with acute undifferentiated febrile illness in Villeta, Colombia.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Relapsing feverbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Characterizing the impact of intracutaneous dissemination on host responses duringFrontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Establishment of a laboratory mouse model to studyFrontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Article
- UnmaskingInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2025Review
- Borrelial Diseases Across Eurasia.Biology · 2025Review
- Borrelia Lineages Adjacent to Zoonotic Clades in Black Flying Foxes (Pteropus alecto), Australia, 2018-2020.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Tick Control Strategies: Critical Insights into Chemical, Biological, Physical, and Integrated Approaches for Effective Hard Tick Management.Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Ticks and tick-borne diseases in the northern hemisphere affecting humans.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Integrating Systematic Surveys With Historical Data to Model the Distribution ofEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Structure analysis of the telomere resolvase from the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia garinii reveals functional divergence of its C-terminal domain.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Infectious eye disease in the 21st century-an overview.Eye (London, England) · 2024Review
- Prevalence of Lyme Disease and Relapsing FeverPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tick borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is a zoonosis caused by various Borrelia species transmitted to humans by both soft-bodied and (more recently recognized) hard-bodied ticks. In recent years, molecular diagnostic techniques have allowed to extend our knowledge on the global epidemiological picture of this neglected disease. Nevertheless, due to the patchy occurrence of the disease and the lack of large clinical studies, the knowledge on several clinical aspects of the disease remains limited. In order to shed light on some of these aspects, we have systematically reviewed the literature on TBRF and summarized the existing data on epidemiology and clinical aspects of the disease. Publications were identified by using a predefined search strategy on electronic databases and a subsequent review of the reference lists of the obtained publications. All publications reporting patients with a confirmed diagnosis of TBRF published in English, French, Italian, German, and Hungarian were included. Maps showing the epidemiogeographic mosaic of the different TBRF Borrelia species were compiled and data on clinical aspects of TBRF were analysed. The epidemiogeographic mosaic of TBRF is complex and still continues to evolve. Ticks harbouring TBRF Borrelia have been reported worldwide, with the exception of Antarctica and Australia. Although only molecular diagnostic methods allow for species identification, microscopy remains the diagnostic gold standard in most clinical settings. The most suggestive symptom in TBRF is the eponymous relapsing fever (present in 100% of the cases). Thrombocytopenia is the most suggestive laboratory finding in TBRF. Neurological complications are frequent in TBRF. Treatment is with beta-lactams, tetracyclines or macrolids. The risk of Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (JHR) appears to be lower in TBRF (19.3%) compared to louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) (55.8%). The overall case fatality rate of TBRF (6.5%) and LBRF (4-10.2%) appears to not differ. Unlike LBRF, where perinatal fatalities are primarily attributable to abortion, TBRF-related perinatal fatalities appear to primarily affect newborns.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.