Publication:

Outbreak of scrub typhus in western part of India: containment and lessons learnt

Background Scrub typhus is one of the most covert diseases of present era. Diagnosis is often missed, and tools for confirming diagnosis are often not available in resource-poor setups. The aim of the study was to investigate an outbreak investigation and suggests methods of containment.

Methods An epidemiological investigation of Scrub typhus outbreak though active and passive surveillance. Time, Place and person distribution, mean, median stand deviation were used during analysis.

Results Cases presented with high grade fever (100%), bodyache (91%) and headache (81%). Nearly, 22% cases presented with Eschar, 16% of blood samples were positive for OX-19 antigens, 9% blood samples were sent for enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and were positive for IgM antibodies.

Conclusions An outbreak of Scrub Typhus infection was successfully contained without any mortality by effectively using Chemoprophylaxis, judicial use of chemicals and personal protective measures.