Outbreak of scrub typhus in North India: a re-emerging epidemic

Sunil Sethi; Amber Prasad; Manisha Biswal; Vinay Kumar Hallur; Abhishek Mewara; Navneet Gupta; Shipra Galhotra; Gagandeep Singh; Kusum Sharma

doi:10.1177/0049475514523761

Outbreak of scrub typhus in North India: a re-emerging epidemic

Trop Doct. 2014 Jul;44(3):156-9. doi: 10.1177/0049475514523761. Epub 2014 Feb 20.

Authors

Sunil Sethi¹, Amber Prasad², Manisha Biswal³, Vinay Kumar Hallur⁴, Abhishek Mewara⁴, Navneet Gupta⁵, Shipra Galhotra⁴, Gagandeep Singh⁴, Kusum Sharma⁶

Affiliations

¹ Additional Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India sunilsethi10@hotmail.com.
² Senior Resident, Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India sunilsethi10@hotmail.com.
³ Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
⁴ Senior Resident, Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
⁵ Deputy Director, National Center for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
⁶ Associate Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

PMID: 24557641
DOI: 10.1177/0049475514523761

Abstract

Scrub typhus is re-emerging in India. We describe an outbreak of 45 cases from our tertiary care center in north India. This outbreak included city dwellers who had no history of travel to hilly areas. The classical feature of scrub typhus, the eschar, was also noted rarely in these patients. The changing epidemiology of scrub typhus should be kept in mind while attending patients with acute febrile illness.

Keywords: Orientia tsutsugamushi; outbreaks; scrub typhus.

MeSH terms

Adult
Communicable Diseases, Emerging / epidemiology
Disease Outbreaks*
Epidemics
Female
Fever
Humans
India / epidemiology
Male
Orientia tsutsugamushi / isolation & purification*
Scrub Typhus / epidemiology*
Young Adult