They analyze a possible case of Rickettsia in Torreón

The Coahuila Ministry of Health, through the State Public Health Laboratory, is studying a suspected case of Rickettsia in the municipality of Torreón. Silvia Salas Cruz, responsible for the Vector Program in Sanitary Jurisdiction No. 6, said that the patient is 16 years old and that the case was notified by a health institution.

At the time, the minor presented fever, headache, abdominal pain and skin rash and is currently under medical surveillance and asymptomatic.

At the patient’s home there was a dog that was infested with ticks, just like the dogs found in other homes in the surrounding area.

The doctor reported that intra- and per-domiciliary residual spraying interventions were immediately carried out, in order to reduce the risk of getting sick from rickettsiosis. These actions were carried out in areas delimited by around five blocks and the case will be confirmed or ruled out in the coming days.

REPORTS IN 2023

Salas Cruz commented that so far this year eight probable cases of Rickettsia have been ruled out in Sanitary Jurisdiction No. 6, which has coverage in the municipalities of Torreón, Matamoros and Viesca.

In the last eleven years, 2022 was positioned as the deadliest in Coahuila in terms of Rickettsiosis. The State Health Secretariat reported that last year 231 probable cases were studied, of which 29 were confirmed and with a balance of 20 deaths. The lethality was 69%, affecting between 10 and 30 percent of children and 6 to 8 percent of the general population.

Rickettsia bacteria cause a group of diseases that affect mammals (dogs) and insect vectors (ticks). The dog is the primary or definitive host, while the human being is the accidental host, since the individual is not involved in the natural cycle of the pathogen but does make it sick.

How to prevent?

Each city council must do the same through its municipal health directorates.

* The latter must form multidisciplinary groups for an immediate response to the manifestation of cases, create Canine Control Centers, capture dogs in street condition, disseminate the risks of the disease to the population and canine sterilization.

* It is also important the active participation of the population to keep homes tidy and clean, inside and outside