Does Paging Clinicians about Tick-Borne Disease Serological Results Impact Clinical Care? A Retrospective Analysis of 70 Cases in North Carolina

Delayed treatment of Rocky Mountain spotted fever is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because the diagnosis cannot be established from a single serological test, guidelines recommend empirical antibiotic initiation in suspect patients. We evaluated a policy used by UNC Health of paging clinicians when acute testing for Rickettsia returned with a titer ≥1:256. Our objective was to assess the potential effect of paging on routine treatment practices. Notably, we found that a high proportion of cases (N = 28, 40%) were not prescribed antibiotics until the results were available. The vast majority of these cases did not have evidence of compatible symptoms or disease progression. These findings suggest that paging may have prompted unnecessary treatment. Overall, the policy, which has now been discontinued, appears to have had limited benefit. Efforts are urgently needed to improve adherence to testing and treatment guidelines.

Ehrlichia Infections, North Carolina, USA, 2016

Nearly two thirds of persons suspected of having tickborne illness in central North Carolina, USA, were not tested for Ehrlichia. Failure to test may have resulted in a missed diagnosis for ≈13% of these persons, who were therefore substantially less likely to receive antimicrobial treatment and to have follow-up testing performed.