BACKGROUND Scrub typhus is an acute febrile illness caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. CASE PRESENTATIONS We encountered a patient with sensorineural hearing loss complicating scrub typhus, and three patients with scrub typhus who complained of otalgia, which was sudden onset, severe, paroxysmal, intermittent yet persistent pain lasting for several seconds, appeared within 1 week after the ons...

Cell-mediated immunity is essential in protection against rickettsial illnesses, but the role of neutrophils in these intracellular vasculotropic infections remains unclear. This study analyzed the plasma levels of nucleosomes, FSAP-activation (nucleosome-releasing factor), and neutrophil activation, as evidenced by neutrophil-elastase (ELA) complexes, in sympatric Lao patients with scrub typhu...

The objective of this study was to determine the optimal cutoff value of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity for diagnosing scrub typhus in acute febrile patients, especially in the autumn. A total of 715 febrile patients were included; 286 of them were diagnosed with acute scrub typhus. The mean serum ADA activities in patients with and without scrub typhus were 42.8 ± 13.4 IU/L and 17.2 ...

Scrub typhus is a major infectious threat in the Asia-Pacific region. We report an unusual case of scrub typhus in a patient in Singapore who presented with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome but lacked the pathognomonic eschar. The patient recovered after appropriate diagnosis and doxycycline treatment. Rickettsial diseases should be included in the differential diagnosis of febril...

Scrub typhus is an infectious disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, which has significant prevalence in eastern and Southeast Asia, such as Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China. Scrub typhus is a public health issue in Asia, where one billion people may be at risk from the disease. In Guangzhou, the biggest city in south China, located in the southern subtropical region, scrub typhus is becoming...

We report here on the case of a child who was infected with scrub typhus, and we made the diagnosis according to the serology and by performing PCRs on the child's eschar. The patient was treated with azithromycin, and he did not experience any complications. Performing nested PCR on the eschar might be both a rapid diagnostic test for scrub typhus in the early acute stage and a differential te...

Scrub typhus is a zoonotic disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi in which humans are accidental hosts. It is a febrile illness which is confined to rural Asia and the Western Pacific islands. Severe complications are very rare. We report four cases of acute fulminant myocarditis in children with scrub typhus. This complication led to severe cardiogenic shock and death in two of them. We beli...

A descriptive study on rickettsiosis was conducted at the largest referral hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, to identify epidemiological and clinical characteristics of specific rickettsiosis. Between March 2001 and February 2003, we enrolled 579 patients with acute undifferentiated fever (AUF), excluding patients with malaria, dengue fever, and typhoid fever, and serologically tested for Orientia ts...

Scrub typhus is an acute febrile illness caused by Orientia induced vasculitis, which is common in Asia and the Pacific Islands and is sometimes also encountered in Western countries. Even though it can cause multi-organ dysfunctions, there is limited information regarding the relationship between scrub typhus infection and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was co...

INTRODUCTION Scrub typhus, a tropical febrile vector borne disease also known as "Tsutsugamushi disease", is caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, a gram negative obligate intracellular slow growing bacteria. The infection is transmitted by the bite of larval stage (chiggers) mites belonging to the family Trombiculidae. The disease is transmitted from larval stage mites to rats, where humans are an...