. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 29.

Published in final edited form as: Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2008 Sep;22(3):449–viii. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2008.03.006

Table 3.

Treatment options for relapsing fever in adults

Medication	Tick-borne relapsing fever (7-day adult dosage schedule)	Louse-borne relapsing fever (single adult dose)
Oral
Chloramphenicol	500 mg every 6 hours	500 mg
Doxycycline	100 mg every 12 hours	100 mg
Erythromycin	500 mg every 6 hours	500 mg
Tetracycline	500 mg every 6 hours	500 mg
Parenteral^a
Chloramphenicol	500 mg every 6 hours	500 mg
Doxycycline	100 mg every 12 hours	100 mg
Erythromycin	500 mg every 6 hours	500 mg
Penicillin G (procaine)	600,000 IU daily	600,000 IU
Tetracycline	250 mg every 6 hours	250 mg

Parenteral medication should be continued until oral medication is tolerated. If oral medication is tolerated at the time of diagnosis, parenteral medication may not be necessary.

Data from Dennis DT, Hayes EB. Relapsing fever. In: Braunwald E, Hauser SL, Fauci AS, Longo DL, Kasper DL, Jameson JL, editors. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. 16^th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2005.