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Ehrlichiosis is an emerging rickettsial disease caused by a gram-negative organism that infects leukocytes. Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), carried by the Ixodes scapularis tick, and human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), carried by the Lone Star tick, Amblyomma americanum, are clinically identical, causing fever, headache, myalgia, fatigue, confusion, and abdominal symptoms, and often associated leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, elevated hepatic enzymes, hyperbilirubinemia, and CSF pleocytosis. This report documents five cases of HME identified in residents of Maryland between May and July, 1994.
The victims (aged between 35 and 63) presented with fever, headache, myalgia, and fatigue, along with a variety of other symptoms, and reported ex…