100th Anniversary of the death of Ricketts: Howard Taylor Ricketts (1871–1910). The namesake of the Rickettsiaceae family

Abstract: The US American pathologist and microbiologist Howard Taylor Ricketts died 100 years ago. He is renowned for discovering the causative organism and the transmission route of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and of tabardillo – an epidemic louse-borne typhus occurring especially in Mexico. He also found that both diseases were caused by related infectious agents (Rickettsia rickettsii and Rickettsia prowazekii). The scientific community therefore named both a taxonomic family (Rickettsiaceae) and an order (Rickettsiales) after the scientist. Ricketts’ work on immunity and serums became the basis for further advances in vaccine development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]