Improving the Diagnosis of Scrub Typhus by Combining Based Polymerase Chain Reaction and IgM ELISA.

Introduction: Scrub typhus, an acute febrile illness, caused by , is an important cause of pyrexia of unknown origin in regions of endemicity. This disease is mostly underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed, the reasons for this being a combination of factors which include clinical manifestations that can mimic other infections, lack of easy and reliable diagnostic methods and variation among strains in endemic areas. Hence, easy and reliable methods of diagnosis will contribute to rapid identification and treatment of the infection.