text: History Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) first emerged in the Idaho Valley in 1896 after being recognized by Major Marshall H. Wood. At the time of discovery, not much information was known about the disease. It was originally called "Black Measles" due to the infected area turning black during the late stages of the disease. The first clinical description of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever was reported in Snake River Valley in 1899 by Edward E. Maxey. At the time, 69% of individuals diagnosed with RMSF died.
  Howard Ricketts (1871–1910), an associate professor of pathology at the University of Chicago in 1902, was the first to identify and study R. rickettsii. His research entailed interviewing victims of the disease as well as collecting infected animals to study. He was known to inject himself with pathogens to measure their effects. His research provided more information on the organism's vector and route of transmission.
  Simeon Burt Wolbach is credited for the first detailed description of the pathogenic agent that causes R. rickettsii in 1919. He described RMSF using the process of Giemsa stain. He recognized the pathogenic agent as an intracellular bacterium that was seen most frequently in endothelial cells.
  The once lethal infection has become curable due to the research done in recent years. Chloramphenicol and tetracycline-class drugs, like doxycycline, were first harnessed as treatment for RMSF in the late 1940s, but before their discovery, 1 in 5 infected patients died. Treatment recommendations changed in the 1990s to support primary therapeutic use of tetracycline-class drugs. This coincided with a decrease in annual case-fatality rates (CFRs) from the 1980s on to the early 1990s. The fatality rate has dropped to between 5 and 10% since then.