Brill-Zinsser disease (recrudescent typhus)

Etiology

• endogenous reinfection with Rickettsia prowazekii associated with a carrier state in persons previously with epidemic typhus (recrudescent typhus)

Clinical manifestations

• may occur 30-50 years after the original infection

Notes

• 1st described by Brill in New York City, but not recognized as a recrudescent form of epidemic typhus until the work of Zinsser

More general terms

• epidemic typhus

Additional terms

• Rickettsia prowazekii