Delhi boy tests positive for rare scrub typhus

A seven-year-old Delhi boy has tested positive for scrub typhus at Kalavati Saran Hospital a rare infectious fever common to mountainous regions.

A seven-year-old Delhi boy has tested positive for scrub typhus at Kalavati Saran Hospital a rare infectious fever common to mountainous regions. The disease,caused by rickets,was confirmed after tests from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). While outbreaks have been reported in Shillong and other parts of the Northeast in the last five years,more recently a sizeable number of patients at Jogindernagar in Himachal Pradesh had tested positive for this vector-borne ailment.

Scrub typhus is recognised as a tropical rickettsial disease that is transferred to humans by infected mites. Its incidence in Delhi,NCDC sources said,is extremely rare.

A senior doctor from Kalawati Saran Hospital said,The patients family decided to leave against medical advice after his diagnosis. He was taken to Max Hospital in Saket.

Dr Arvind Taneja,advisor at Max Hospitals paediatrics department who treated the young boy,said,We were told by the LHMC doctors that the patient was coming here. With the disease,the trick lies in timely and accurate diagnosis.

Doctors at Kalavati Saran Hospital said the patient had clinical symptoms of rickettsial fevers like fever,acute pain in the head,a rash,and a slight itch from a mite bite. Since the symptoms are not specific,the disease is tough to diagnose, said the doctor from Kalavati Saran Hospital.

If not diagnosed in time,scrub typhus can lead to complications like pneumonia,Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and cardiovascular problems. The boy had fever for about 10 days before he came to us. He was admitted here for five days. He was discharged with a prescription of a 10-day course of antibiotic Doxycycline the specific antibiotic used for this problem, Dr Taneja added. The patient is now completely healthy,he added.

Routine government hospitals do not have the facility for the diagnostic test for this typhus fever,though it is available in a handful of private laboratories.

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National Centre for Disease Control

Delhi boy tests positive for rare scrub typhus

A seven-year-old Delhi boy has tested positive for scrub typhus at Kalavati Saran Hospital  a rare infectious fever common to mountainous regions.

A seven-year-old Delhi boy has tested positive for scrub typhus at Kalavati Saran Hospital a rare infectious fever common to mountainous regions.