Asraful Islam1, Rajdeep Saha2, Arup Roy3
BACKGROUND
Scrub typhus is a mite borne zoonotic bacterial disease caused
by Orientia tsutsugamushi. It is transmitted by bite of chiggers of trombiculid mite.
Clinical features generally include fever, headache, and myalgia, with or without
eschar/rash. People with severe illness may develop organ failure and bleeding
which can be fatal if left untreated. This study was done to detect outbreak of
cases of scrub typhus in Eastern India. These mites generally live in paddy fields
of forested area and people visiting those areas are generally affected. Now a days
these mites migrate to urban area resulting in increased incidence of scrub typhus
infection in urban area. This study was conducted in collaboration with another
institute. The purpose of this study was to find out the incidence of scrub typhus
in our area and the relationship between occurrence of scrub typhus and seasonal,
age and sex variation.
METHODS
This study was carried out in our tertiary care hospital with 441 samples for a
period of one year (01.01.2019 to 31.12.19). All the blood samples collected from
febrile patients were subjected to Weil Felix test. If the titre is > 1 : 160; this was
further confirmed by specific IgM testing. Both Weil-Felix tests and IgM scrub
typhus positive tests were noted.
RESULTS
Out of 441 samples, 98 (22.2 %, n = 441) samples were positive for both Weil-
Felix and scrub typhus IgM by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
testing. Most of the cases were seen in males. Seasonal distribution showed higher
cases in the months of September and October.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study, the highest numbers of scrub typhus cases were found in rural areas,
during the harvesting period of July–September specially in monsoon or post
monsoon period when there is abundance of mite larva. This infection is also
reported high in cases among children in the age group of 1 - 14 years. Patients
who tested positive for scrub typhus improved radically with doxycycline.
