Tick-borne relapsing fever: another underdiagnosed etiology in tropical Latin America?

Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is an infectious zoonotic disease caused by spirochetes of the genus Borrelia, transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of soft ticks (Argasidae) of the genus Ornithodoros (1,2). In nature, borreliae are maintained in an enzootic cycle that involves wild mammals (mainly rodents), where ticks acquire spirochetes after short periods of hematophagy (15-90 minutes), remaining chronically infected with the possibility of transmitting microorganisms to new vertebrate individuals, including man, who acts as an accidental host (2).