Southern tick-associated rash illness

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Southern tick-associated rash illness
Other namesMasters' disease
carriers of southern tick-associated rash illness.
SpecialtyInfectious disease

Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI) is an

Borrelia lonestari
. However, there is insufficient evidence to declare this Borrelia strain as a causative agent.

Symptoms

"Bull's-eye" STARI rash

Diagnosis is based on a circular "bull's-eye" rash at the site of infection called

erythema chronicum migrans, which is very similar to that seen in Lyme disease. However, the symptoms of STARI are mild, and resemble influenza, with fatigue, muscle pains, and headache.[1]
Fever is sometimes seen, but is not characteristic.

Causes

This illness is a

vector of disease in 1984,[2] and the illnesses associated with the tick called "Lyme-like disease",[3] but it was not recognized to be distinct from Lyme disease until the late 1990s.[4][1]

Several studies have failed to detect

spirochete first isolated in culture in 2004.[9] However, this conclusion is controversial since the spirochete is not detected in all cases of the syndrome,[6] which has led some authors to argue that the illness is not caused by a bacterial pathogen.[10]

Treatment

Infections are treated with antibiotics, particularly doxycycline, and the acute symptoms appear to respond to these drugs.[8][11]

Prognosis

No serious long-term effects are known for this disease,[11] but preliminary evidence suggests, if such symptoms do occur, they are less severe than those associated with Lyme disease.[7]

See also

References

External links