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Causes of acute undifferentiated febrile illness vary by geographic region. Knowledge of the causative pathogens enables diagnosis, treatment, and targeted public health measures. Such information is limited for many remote areas of the tropics; for example, no data about local infections have been published for Ecuador's Amazon basin.
To learn more about causative pathogens in this region, investigators conducted a prospective longitudinal study at a mission hospital and a military hospital among patients treated for acute febrile illnesses between April 2001 and September 2004. Included were inpatients, outpatients, and those seen in the emergency department with fever but no obvious focus of infection, such as pneumonia or cellulitis. Chi…