BHUBANESWAR: AMID significant rise in scrub typhus cases and deaths in Odisha, the latest study has found a high prevalence of the infection among children and high incidence of associated acute kidney injury among patients.
The ongoing pilot study conducted by Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, revealed around 40 per cent prevalence of scrub typhus among children with pyrexia of unknown origin and high incidence of associated acute kidney injury among patients having a history of acute fever in Keonjhar district. Keonjhar is among the four worst hit districts in the state that has recorded eight deaths and over 1,000 cases so far this year.
Though no one has succumbed to the disease in the district, over 630 persons have tested positive in the last three months.
The fatalities have been reported from Bargarh, Sundargarh and Kalahandi. Scrub typhus, commonly called bush typhus, is an underdiagnosed re-emerging but neglected zoonotic acute febrile illness. The disease has a mortality rate of about 50 per cent, if untreated.
As there is no public health programme for control of scrub typhus in the country or in any of the states, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is conducting the first-of-its-kind study in the tribal district of Keonjhar to develop a public health programme for control and prevention of the disease.
Scrub typhus has high prevalence among kids
RMRC director Dr Sanghamitra Pati said a public health programme has been prepared for early diagnosis of the disease starting from community level to the health system for early detection and treatment and it has been implemented in the district. Earlier, the RMRC had conducted a serological analysis of 30 acute encephalitis syndrome (AES)/Japanese encephalitis (JE) on archived samples collected from hospitalised children during the 2016 epidemic and found that 23.3 per cent (seven) of the JE suspected cases were positive for scrub typhus.
“This prompted us to carry out this pilot study to investigate the burden of pediatric scrub typhus in the state,” said Dr Pati.
Meanwhile, the Health department has dispatched health teams to Bargarh and Sundargarh districts for a comprehensive investigation. Public health director Dr Niranjan Mishra said the investigation is necessitated by certain discrepancies in the reported deaths. The deceased had not been tested or received treatment at any government hospital.