Characteristics of pediatric scrub typhus in a new endemic region of northern China.

Background: Scrub typhus emerged in northern China in 1986. Our objective was to document epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory features of pediatric scrub typhus in this new endemic area.

Methods: The pediatric patients diagnosed with scrub typhus during the 12-year period from 1995 through 2006 in Feixian County, Shandong province were enrolled in the study.

Clinical characteristics of the autumn-winter type scrub typhus cases in south of Shandong province, northern China.

Background: Before 1986, scrub typhus was only found endemic in southern China. Because human infections typically occur in the summer, it is called "summer type". During the autumn-winter period of 1986, a new type of scrub typhus was identified in Shandong and northern Jiangsu province of northern China.

[Clinical manifestations and epidemic factors of autumn-winter type scrub typhus in children from northern new endemic area].

Objective: Scrub typhus is an infectious disease due to Orientia tsutsugamushi transmitted by infected chigger mites. Scrub typhus has long been recognized to occur in southern areas of China, but has recently been increasingly often reported from the north since the first case was reported in Mengyin County, Shandong Province in 1986. The key objectives of the present study were to investigate the clinical manifestations and epidemic factors of scrub typhus in children from the northern new natural foci.

Key differentiating features between scrub typhus and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in northern China.

Both scrub typhus and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) are severely epidemic in northern China and often present with acute undifferentiated fever. To correctly distinguish the two diseases at an early stage, we collected and compared clinical and routine laboratory data of 46 patients with confirmed scrub typhus and 49 patients with confirmed HFRS presenting to the outpatient departments of three town hospitals in northern China. Most patients with HFRS but none of the patients with scrub typhus had hemorrhagic manifestations.