ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In 2006, we celebrate the centenary of Howard Taylor Ricketts’s seminal work establishing that Dermacentor ticks serve as vectors for the agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) (1). Since that work, the vector-pathogen relationships of the rickettsioses have been increasingly better defined through intensive studies of RMSF, murine typhus, and epidemic typhus. The mite-borne rickettsioses (scrub typhus, rickettsialpox), however, remain understudied. We review herein the major features of the vector-pathogen relationships of the infections that serve as the main rickettsial clades, focusing on the evidence that serves as the basis for our interpretations, and suggest fruitful avenues of future inquiry.
