Rickettsial diseases are common causes of febrile illness in Africa. While febrile disease due to rickettsioses might often be under-recognized in routine clinical care, research cohorts and clinical reports have demonstrated rickettsial diseases in all regions of the continent (Tissot-Dupont et al. 1995; Cherry et al. 2018). Outbreaks of epidemic typhus due to R. prowazekii among displaced refugee populations in Burundi and a youth rehabilitation camp in Rwanda (Raoult et al. 1998; Umulisa et al. 2016) highlight the clinical and public health relevance of rickettsioses in Africa. While epidemic typhus affects marginalized populations exposed to crowding and poor hygiene, the other rickettsial diseases are transmitted by arthropods typically found in rural areas; or, in the case of Q fever due to Coxiella burnetii, by exposure to infected livestock. As such, in many contexts in Africa, rickettsial infections can be considered neglected diseases of poverty.