Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever, a Neglected Cause of Fever in Fars Province

Tick-borne relapsing fever is an endemic disease in some partsof iran. borellia persica, the most common cause of this diseasein iran, has a wide geographic distribution and is presentin alborz and zagros mountain chains.here we report a l6-year-old male patient who presentedwith two episodes of fever within 15 days. he had a history offew overnight stays in a cave of mountainous area in farsprovince. sites of tick bites were found on exposed areas ofextremities. spirochetes were detected in wright-stainedsmears of the patient's peripheral blood. he was successfullytreated with penicillin. to the best of our knowledge, there hasbeen no reported case of tick-borne relapsing fever from farsprovince in the literature during the last 28 years.tick-borne relapsing fever should be considered in patientswith recurrent fever and peripheral blood smear should be investigatedfor spirochetes. further seroepidemiologic studiesshould be carried out to determine the prevalence of this diseasein fars province.