RESUMO

The US American pathologist and microbiologist Howard Taylor Ricketts died 100 years ago. He is renowned for discovering the causative organism and the transmission route of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and of tabardillo--an epidemic louse-borne typhus occurring especially in Mexico. He also found that both diseases were caused by related infectious agents (Rickettsia rickettsii and Rickettsia prowazekii). The scientific community therefore named both a taxonomic family (Rickettsiaceae) and an order (Rickettsiales) after the scientist. Ricketts' work on immunity and serums became the basis for further advances in vaccine development.

Assuntos

Rickettsiaceae/fisiologia , História do Século XIX , História do Século XX , Humanos , México , Microbiologia/história , Patologia/história , Febre Maculosa das Montanhas Rochosas/história , Febre Maculosa das Montanhas Rochosas/microbiologia , Tifo Epidêmico Transmitido por Piolhos/história , Tifo Epidêmico Transmitido por Piolhos/microbiologia , Estados Unidos