Spotted fever group rickettsiae in southern Africa--a review and current concepts.

: Until recently our understanding of spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsioses in southern Africa was based on research carried out in the 1930s and 1940s. In the last decade there have been considerable advances in the techniques available to study rickettsias and the application of these in southern Africa has greatly increased our knowledge of the organisms in the region and the epidemiology of diseases they cause. In this review we describe the new advances used to study rickettsias and the current data available on SFG rickettsioses in the region.