RESUMO
Scrub typhus is a tropical febrile zoonotic disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi of the rickettsial family. These are obligate; intracellular Gram-negative coccobacilli transmitted by the bite of infected mites. It is usually underdiagnosed in India due to its varied and nonspecifi c clinical presentation, limited awareness, and low index of suspicion among clinicians and lack of diagnostic facilities. This study was planned to monitor the level of scrub typhus-specifi c antibodies among febrile patients in a tertiary care hospital over a period of 1 year for which a rapid qualitative immunochromatographic assay (Standard Diagnostics, Korea) was introduced for the detection of IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies to O. tsutsugamushi from the serum of suspected febrile patients. A total of 98 out of 772 fever patients (12.69%) tested positive for the presence of antibodies against O. tsutsugamushi. Persistent high-grade fever was the defi ning characteristic in all the cases with the presence of an eschar in only 10.2% (10/98) of cases. Three patients died during the study period while the rest responded to treatment with doxycycline.
RESUMO
Dengue with its severe manifestations- Dengue haemorrhagic fever(DHF) and Dengue shock syndrome(DSS) is now becoming an increasing threat in many parts of the world. An epidemic of febrile illness with haemorrhagic manifestations broke out in Ludhiana from September-November 2003. Serological investigations were conducted to find out the etiology of the febrile illness. Serum samples were collected from all patients coming to the hospital with acute symptoms and tested by ELISA for anti-dengue IgM antibodies. Of the 2309 samples tested, a total of 586 samples were positive for antidengue IgM antibodies and another 98 samples were reported to be in the grey zone. With epidemics occurring in the recent past both in 1996 and 1999, the febrile illness was serologically concluded to be dengue hemorrhagic fever.