[Determination of antibody kinetics in Mediterranean spotted fever using the Weil-Felix agglutination test, complement fixation and indirect immunofluorescence].

The kinetics of antibodies in human cases of Mediterranean spotted fever was studied by applying Weil-Felix (WF) agglutination with Proteus OX antigens, complement fixation (CF) and indirect immunofluorescence (IF) tests with Rickettsia conorri antigen to 46 sera from 21 patients. The kinetics of specific (CF and IF) and nonspecific (WF) antibodies was similar. The percentage of the positive sera and geometric mean titers of antibodies reached the maximum after 14 days from the onset of illness.