Rift valley fever differential diagnosis

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aakash Hans, MD[2]

Overview

The majority of differential diagnoses for Rift valley fever arise from other diseases which are prevalent in travelers and present with fever. All these disease would share a similar history of recent travel to an endemic area, followed by development of fever and body aches. A few of these diseases are listed below.

Differential Diagnosis

• Malaria
  • The disease presents with fever like Rift valley fever, but the major difference is the pattern of fever in malaria. The fever recurs every 3-4 days in malaria while no such patterns are seen in RVF.
  • Malaria is common in African countries, so paying attention to the time and onset of fevers can be useful in distinguishing between the two diseases.
• Typhoid fever
  • Typhoid usually has a pattern of step-ladder form of fever, meaning the temperature rises with each passing day.
  • The patient also complaints of bowel abnormalities along with fever. Individuals report either constipation or diarrhea along with fever.
  • A rash is seen on the chest, known as rose-spots in patients with Typhoid.
• Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
• Ebola virus disease
• Dengue
  • Patients with dengue also complain of fever but have greater joint pains than in Rift valley fever.
  • A characteristic feature of dengue fever is 'retro-orbital pain.
  • Dengue has a longer incubation period of 7 days, followed by a week of febrile phase, 1-2 days of the critical phase and 3-5 days of the recovery phase.
• Yellow fever
• Lassa fever
• Chikungunya
• Q fever
• Zika virus
• Marburg virus disease

References

• https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rift-valley-fever
• https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/rvf/index.html