Is Dengue Epidemic Masking The Incidence Of Scrub Typhus? An Observational Study

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Is Dengue Epidemic Masking The Incidence Of Scrub Typhus? An Observational Study

Journal Title: IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences (IOSR-JDMS) - Year 2018, Vol 17, Issue 3

Abstract

Srub typhus, an acute febrile illness caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, is essentially a vasculitic disorder which if left untreated or improperly treated can lead to serious end organ damage and death. So its early diagnosis is of utmost importance. As peak season of Dengue and Scrub typhus overlaps (June to November) and both show similar clinical features, there is a tendency to overlook the latter where dengue is endemic. As the catchment area of our hospital is a dengue endemic zone with history of occurrence of epidemics in the past, there is an inherent tendency to be biased towards dengue. In 2017 we found 1259 cases to be reactive for Dengue NS1 out of 5228suspected cases tested for it(24% positivity), and 717 cases were reactive for Dengue IgM out of 3474 suspectedcases tested for it (20.7% positivity). In contrast only 62suspected cases were tested for Scrub typhus by Immunochromatographic Test (ICT) kit from July’2017 onwards and among them 12were found to be reactive (19.4% positivity). Thus, the proportion of positive cases among the different tests performed are fairly comparable, though there is pronounced skewing towards the dengue diagnostic tests in terms of the relative frequency of their utilisation. Hence it can be tacitly inferred that cases of scrub typhus are being missed due to our overzealous emphasis towards Dengue diagnosis, especially during epidemics.

Authors and Affiliations

Sanjit Kumar Patra, Debalina Das

Keywords

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EP ID EP369372
DOI 10.9790/0853-1703082123.
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