A Case of Tropical Typhus Serologically Related to 'Scrub Typhus' of the Federated Malay States

In a recent publication, Kundu (1932) described a case of typhus fever contracted in Burma, the clinical diagnosis being confirmed by a strongly positive Weil-Felix reaction with proteus X19. In the conclusions to his paper Kundu refers to the possibility of the tropical typhus which occurs in Malaya overlapping into Burma, and suggested that further investigation in the future would probably reveal the presence in this country of more cases of fever of this type. Experience in Malaya has shown (Fletcher, 1930) that in that country ' tropical typhus01 two distinct serological varieties is met withThe first of these occurs among the urban population and is designated the ' W' group or 1 shop typhus'. The serum of patients suffering from this type of the disease gives a positive agglutination reaction with the ordinary X19 straU1 of proteus. The other variety, occurring among the rural population, is called the ' K' group