View source for Rickettsia akari

{{Short description|Species of bacterium}}
{{Speciesbox
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| genus = Rickettsia
| species = akari
| parent = Spotted fever group
| authority = [[Robert Huebner|Huebner]], 1946
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'''''Rickettsia akari''''' is a species of ''[[Rickettsia]]'' which causes [[rickettsialpox]].<ref>{{DorlandsDict|seven/000093181|rickettsialpox}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Gene |last=Mayer |chapter=Bacteriology: Ch. 21: Rickettsia, Orientia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Coxiella and Bartonella |chapter-url=http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mayer/ricketsia.htm |title=Microbiology and Immunology On-line |publisher=University of South Carolina School of Medicine }}</ref>

After a 1946 outbreak of a rickettsial-type disease at an apartment complex in [[Kew Gardens, Queens]], an investigation was performed to identify the source of the infections. The incinerators in the buildings were not operated on a daily basis, leading to a buildup in [[food waste]] and attracting mice that were rampant throughout the building. The ''[[Mus musculus]]'' mice were found to be carrying [[mite]]s, identified as the house mouse mite, ''[[Allodermanyssus sanguineus]]''. Self-trained [[entomologist]] [[Charles Pomerantz]] asked permission to search the site and found the mites at various sites throughout the building, with blood-engorged mites found near chutes leading to the incinerator. The mites were collected and brought to a laboratory of the [[United States Public Health Service]], which found in the mites an organism that had also been isolated from the mice, and from the blood of individuals infected with the disease.<ref name=AJPH>{{cite journal |vauthors=Greenberg M, Pellitteri OJ, Jellison WL |title=Rickettsialpox-A Newly Recognized Rickettsial Disease : III. Epidemiology |journal=[[American Journal of Public Health|Am J Public Health Nations Health]] |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=860–8 |date=July 1947 |pmid=18016565 |pmc=1623794 |format=PDF |url=|doi=10.2105/ajph.37.7.860}}</ref>

The organism was given its name by physician [[Robert Huebner]], one of the scientists who had tracked down the source of the original 1946 epidemic; the ''akari'' portion of the bacteria's name represents the [[Greek language|Greek]] word for "mite".<ref name=NIHBio>{{cite web |last=Beeman |first=Edward A. |title=Robert J. Huebner, M.D.:A Virologist's Odyssey |date=2005 |publisher=[[National Institutes of Health]] |url=http://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/HuebnerBiography.pdf |format=PDF}}</ref>

While active efforts to exterminate mice from buildings has greatly reduced recurrences of the diseases, a July 2002 report from the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] report a recent case in [[North Carolina]], noting that cases have been reported in [[Croatia]] and [[Ukraine]] and that the ''R. akari'' organism may exist in "sylvan cycles", such as its isolation from [[vole]]s in [[Korea]].<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Krusell A, Comer JA, Sexton DJ |title=Rickettsialpox in North Carolina: a case report |journal=Emerging Infect. Dis. |volume=8 |issue=7 |pages=727–8 |date=July 2002 |pmid=12095443 |pmc=2730333 |doi=10.3201/eid0807.010501 |url=https://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol8no7/01-0501.htm}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Liponyssoides sanguineus]]

==References==
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*{{cite web |title=''Rickettsia akari'' |work=NCBI Taxonomy Browser |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id=786 |id=786}}
{{refend}}

{{Gram-negative bacterial diseases}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q7331927}}

[[Category:Rickettsiaceae]]