Epidemiology and clinical profile of scrub typhus outbreak in a tertiary care centre of central India

Abstract

Background: Scrub typhus is the most common rickettsial infection in the Indian subcontinent with the manifestation ranging from mild symptoms to serious disease with or complication or death. The objective of this study was to study epidemiology and clinical profile of scrub typhus outbreak in a tertiary care centre of central India. Methods: Present study is a record based retrospective study enrolling 173 confirmed positive cases with ELISA test during the period from 1 st August to 31 st December 2018. Results: Maximum number of the cases 94 (54.3%) had occurred in September 2019. Majority of the female 94(54.3%) were Ig M positive for scrub typhus. Maximum cases 134 (77.5%) were from rural area. Most common symptoms were fever 170 (98.3%), followed by fever with chills 65 (37.6%), breathlessness 49 (28.3%), cough 35 (20.2%), and 28 (16.2%) each with altered sensorium and headache. Mortality was recorded in 30 (173%) and amongst them 10 (34.5%) and 4 (13.8%) cases had ARDS and septicaemia as complication respectively. Conclusions: This study shows that majority of the cases occurred in the month of September 2018 with female preponderance. Most of the residence were from rural areas with common presenting symptoms as fever or fever with chills followed by breathlessness, cough and altered sensorium and headache.

Seroprevalence of Scrub typhus in a rural tertiary care hospital of Eastern India

“…This finding is in concordance with the studies conducted by Saha et al and also with the data found by Indian Council of Medical Research. 16,17,18 Fever is the most common symptom reported by the different patients which is similar to other studies. 3,9,19 No mortality was found in the study and all the patients recovered fully from the infection probably because of early diagnosis and increased use of the drug Doxycycline for the treatment of the infection.…”

Unravelling the Enigma of Scrub Typhus: A Critical Review and Insights Into Epidemiology, Clinical Features, Diagnostic Advances, and Emerging Trends

“…Narlawar et al explored cases in central India; the common symptoms were fever, fever with chills, breathlessness, cough, altered sensorium, vomiting and nausea, swelling over feet, headache, gastrointestinal symptoms, urinary symptoms, skin lesions (eschar). Other complications are pancreatitis, ARDS, septicemia, encephalitis, AKI, osteoarthritis, and renal calculi [ 42 ]. Varghese et al highlighted case distribution in south India where ARDS, shock requiring inotropic support, hepatitis, meningoencephalitis, renal failure, invasive ventilation and CNS dysfunction were seen, confirming with IgM ELISA [ 30 ].…”

A rare etiology behind isolated lateral rectus palsy: Scrub typhus

“…also lately described the clinico-epidemiological profile of 173 outbreak cases over a 5-month period from Central India, most cases being from rural areas, where 17.3% of patients expired despite adequate care. [ 8 ]…”