Investigations of Relapsing Fever at Home and Abroad

Abstract

Relapsing fever is an ancient disease of humans first describedby Hippocrates long before the development of the germ theoryand achromatic microscopes that lay the foundation for thediscovery of the causative agents. Two epidemiological forms ofthe disease exist; these include epidemic relapsing fever thatis associated with only humans and the human body lousePediculus humanus and endemic relapsing fever that is associatedwith enzootic cycles involving many species of wild animals andsoft-bodied ticks in the family Argasidae [21].