Estimation of the burden of tsutsugamushi disease in central part of Nepal with high resource settings

Yadav, Laxmi Kumari; Yadav, Ramlochan

doi:10.21608/mid.2023.212325.1525

Estimation of the burden of tsutsugamushi disease in central part of Nepal with high resource settings

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Microbiology, Chitwan Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, 44200, Chitwan, Nepal

² Neurophysiology, Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Australia

10.21608/mid.2023.212325.1525

Abstract

Background: Tsutsugamushi disease is an endemic disease and acute febrile illness caused by bacteria known as rickettsia. It is a serious public health issue that has threatened the billion of people around the globe. It can lead to multiorgan failure and the disease manifests as flu like symptoms such as myalgia, cough, shortness of breath, fever, eschars at the bitten site, petechial rashes throughout the body, generalized lymphadenopathy, abdominal pains, nausea and vomiting. Aim and objectives: The purpose of this study was to illustrate the frequency of patients affected by this bacteria in different age groups, gender, and geographical areas. Material and methods: The bacteria was identified from the samples collected from the various clinical departments of Chitwan Medical College and Teaching Hospital. Results: The study illustrates that cases of AFI was highly prevalent in housewives followed by the students and also predominant in the people of urban area than in comparison to those of rural area. The study also suggests that people of age group 31-60 had more positive cases of acute febrile illness. 90 of the cases had positive status of scrub typhus among all the patients admitted with AFI. This study shows that various symptoms like fever, headache, myalgia, cough, eschar, petechiae and low platelet count were observed in the patients of scrub typhus. Conclusions: Scrub typhus might cause multiorgan and multisystem failure. It is an under diagnosed and grossly neglected disease around the whole world.

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