Symptoms of Scrub Typhus
Q. Which of the following are symptoms of Scrub Typhus?
1) Black Scab
2) Sores
3) Swelling of the lymph nodes- Published on 03 Oct 16a. 1, 2
b. 1, 3
c. 2, 3
d. All of the above
ANSWER: All of the above
- At onset there is fever, headache, bodyache, cough and gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Patients with a mild infection may recover without any other symptoms. However, roughly every second patient develops a visible black scab at the point of the bite, with a swelling of the lymph nodes.
- Severe cases typically include encephalitis and interstitial pneumonia due to vascular injury. The fatality rate is 7%.
- Sores caused by the mite’s bites are usually one of the distinguishing features of the disease, crucial for clinical diagnosis.
- Similarities in presentation with chikungunya often confound the diagnosis.
- Like in dengue and chikungunya, the commonest — and cheaper — diagnostic tests involve looking for the antibodies to the parasite rather than the parasite itself in the bloodstream.
- An indirect immunoperoxidase test or a dot immunoassay or tests for detection of IgM and IgG fall under this category. The failsafe test is the expensive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
