J Arthropod-Borne Dis, March 2017, 11(1): 171 A Mehrabi-Tavana: Sand Fly Fever …

171
http://jad.tums.ac.ir
Published Online: March 14, 2017

Letter to the Editor

Sand Fly Fever with Different Names

Ali Mehrabi-Tavana

Health Management Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,
Iran

(Received 16 July 2016; accepted 15 Jan 2017)

Dear Editor-in-Chief

With regard to a paper published in Jour-
nal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases;

A Case Report entitled “Sand fly Fever
with Skin Lesions: A Case Series from Tur-
key” was published in 2016 (Fatih Temocin,
et al. 2016). Different names such as “Phleboto-
mus fever”, ‘’mosquito fever’’, three-day fe-
ver or “Papatasi fever” called the disease of
Sand fly fever which all are true except ‘’mos-
quito fever’’ (Tavana 2001, 2015). Mosquito
is not a general name in English and is used
just for Culicidae. Blackflies and biting midges
are used for Simuliidae and Ceratopogonidae,
respectively. Therefore, is not related to sand
fly fever (Saidi et al. 1977, Izri et al. 2008).
In my opinion it should be corrected. Sand
fly fever is an arthropod-borne viral disease,
starts with acute onset of high fever, and
lasts for two to four days, sometimes much
longer.

Photophobia and muscle ache are more
common in the patients. This disease is more
prevalent in Europe, Asia, and Persian Gulf
region (Konstantinou et al. 2007, Tavana 2007).
It is important to be aware and take care of
this disease in endemic and no-endemic area
among travelers returning from endemic areas.

References

Fatih Temocin, Tugba Sari, Necla Tulek
(2016) Sand fly Fever with Skin Le-
sions: A Case Series from Turkey. J
Arthropod-Borne Dis. 10(4): 608–612.

Tavana AM (2001) The seroepidemiological
studies of sand fly fever in Iran during
imposed war. Iran J Public Health. 30:
145–146.

Tavana AM (2007) Minire view on sand fly
fever. J Entomol. 4: 401–403.

Tavana AM (2015) Sand fly fever in the world.
Ann Trop Med Public Health. 8: 83–87.

Saidi S, Tesh RB, Javadian E, Sahabi Z,
Nadim A (1977) Studies on the epide-
miology of sand fly fever in Iran. II.
The prevalence of human and animal
infection with five Phlebotomus fever
virus serotypes in Isfahan Province.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 26: 288–293.

Konstantinou GN, Papa A, Antoniadis A (2007)
Sand fly-fever outbreak in Cyprus: are
phleboviruses still a health problem?
Travel Med Infect Dis. 5: 239–242.

Izri A, Temmam S, Moureau G, Hamrioui B,
deLamballerie X, Charrel RN (2008)
Sand fly fever Sicilian virus, Algeria.
Emerg Infect Dis. 14: 795–797.

*Corresponding author: Dr Ali Mehrabi-Tavana,
Email: mehrab@bmsu.ac.ir