Relapsing fever

Relapsing fever, bacteria-transmitted ailment that may recur several times in the same person. Usually occurring in the tropics, relapsing fever is caused by spirochetes carried by lice and ticks, which thrive on unsanitary living conditions. Symptoms of the disease include fever, chills, headaches, muscular pain, and sometimes vomiting. An infected person may be violently ill for several days or a week, return to good health, but if not treated properly have a relapse—as many as 10–12 times. The body's natural defenses may successfully combat the disease for a time, but infected spirochetes still in the body may reinvade the bloodstream, causing relapses when the body's defenses weaken. Penicillin and other antibiotics combined with extensive bed rest is effective treatment.