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Classification: Rickettsia
- Signs and Symptoms
- Sudden onset
- Fever, chills, headache
- Weakness
- Profuse sweating
- Cough
- Chest, muscle, and joint pain
- Characteristics
- Incubation period: 10 to 21 days
- Rarely fatal
- Rarely contagious
- Treatment available
- Indicators
- Focused response
- Public health emergency
- Verbal or written threats
- Unusual number of sick or dying people or animals
- Suspicious bombing incident with little blast or fire damage
- Unscheduled or unusual spray being or having been disseminated
- Abandoned spray or dispersion devices
- Laboratory containers
- Biohazard cultures or culture media labels
- Unusual swarms of insects
- Casualty distribution aligned with wind direction
- Routes of Exposure
- Emergency Response
- Approach from upwind, uphill or upstream
- Isolate immediate area for at least 300 feet in all directions
- Keep unauthorized persons away (crowd control)
- Stay upwind
- Make notifications
- Decon with 5% bleach solution (if surface contamination is present)
- Obtain immediate medical treatment
- Type of Harm
- Personal Protection
- Time - keep exposure and product contact to minimum
- Distance - stay at least 300 feet away on upwind side until
agent is identified
- Shielding - chemical protective clothing
- Contact
- If you suspect the above agent, immediately contact (in the order presented):
- Drs. Lucy DesJardin and Mike Pentella at the University
Hygienic Laboratory. If they aren't readily available, ask for someone in
the Bacteriology, Virology, Serology, or Molecular laboratory.
319.335.4500 or 1.800.421.IOWA(4692)
- University Hygienic Laboratory Duty Officer
319.335.4500 or 319.530.5981
- As a final resort, the following 24-hour emergency hotlines
have been established:
Iowa Public Health Emergency Terrorism/Disaster Notification Hotline
1.866.834.9671
Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 Spill Hotline
913.281.0991
CDC Hotline 404.639.2540 or 777.488.7100
National Response Center (oil and chemical spills) 800.424.8802
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