Investigatory Profile and Treatment Outcome of Paediatric Scrub Typhus Patients: A Tertiary Care Hospital Experience in Southern India

Abstract

BACKGROUNDScrub typhus (Tsutsugamushi fever) is a zoonotic disease among Rickettsial infections, wherein man is an accidental host. Scrub typhus is an important and widespread cause of acute febrile illness in rural areas of Asian and Northern Australia. In the preantibiotic era, the mortality rates as high as 42% were reported. Scrub typhus is very responsive to treatment with timely and appropriate antibiotics. The disease still causes a significant rise of death in rural areas, where effective treatment is unavailable or delayed. Scrub typhus is grossly underdiagnosed, especially in India due to lack of awareness among clinicians and also due to lack of diagnostic tests. In our study, we studied the investigatory profile and treatment outcome in paediatric Scrub typhus patients.