ORPHA:83311
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Publications
6,045
Trials
1
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
995
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare, acquired, life-threatening, infectious disease due to the tick-borne bacteria Rickettsia rickettsii characterized by an acute onset of fever, malaise, and severe headache, variably accompanied by myalgia, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and photophobia, associating (2-5 days after fever onset) a typically erythematous, blanching or non-blanching, maculopapluar rash with petechiae, starting on the wrists and ankles and progressing centrifugally to the palms and soles and centripetally to the arms, legs and trunk. Additonal variable features may include conjunctivitis, mucosal ulcers, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, jaundice, pneumonia, , renal failure, meningismus, amnesia, optic disc edema, and ocular arterial occlusion.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0019359
- MeSH:D012373
- UMLS:C0035793
- NCIT:C128410
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
6,045 matched papers (1,775 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPresent
1 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
6,045
6,045 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
6,045 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
1,775 in the last 10 years · low confidence
Phrase hits: 6,045 · MeSH hits: 182
Who's working on it?
995
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.
- 01Paddock CD14 papers · 2026
Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Foley J12 papers · 2025
School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Álvarez-Hernández G8 papers · 2026
2Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Sonora, Hermosillo, Mexico.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04López-Pérez AM7 papers · 2025
Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, United States; Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Xalapa 91073, Mexico.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Backus L6 papers · 2025
School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Hacker JK6 papers · 2026
Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, Center for Laboratory Sciences, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Labruna MB6 papers · 2026
Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Orlando Marques de Paiva, 87, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, CEP: 05508-270, Brazil.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Rubino F6 papers · 2025
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, California.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Salzer JS6 papers · 2025
Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Zazueta OE6 papers · 2025
Secretaría de Salud de Baja California, Mexicali, Baja California, México.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
1
interventional trials for this specific condition
1 interventional trial matched this specific condition name; none in our sample are currently recruiting.
Data as of 27 July 2026
1 interventional trial — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 76.8th percentile).
low confidence · 76.8th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
1 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.
No currently recruiting studies in the matched set. Open the same search on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Broader category: spotted fever
0
Interventional trials for the parent category, exclusive of NCT IDs already counted above. Eligibility for this subtype is not guaranteed.
Parent-category matching found a broader label but no interventional trials under it. How we count trials.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Rocky Mountain spotted fever"
MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Rocky Mountain spotted fever"
Interventional trials matched via: both (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).
Study-type breakdown: 1 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Parent-category trials query:
"spotted fever"
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (6045) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity
Ingested 2026-07-27T02:33:13.223Z