Abstract
A city park as a potential epidemic site of scrub typhus: a case¿control study of an outbreak in Guangzhou, China
Highlights
Scrub typhus is an important public health problem in China, especially in Guangzhou city
In China, outbreaks of scrub typhus are typically reported in rural areas, and it is primarily farmers are who are infected
All 29 cases were confirmed by Weil–Felix test, of which the genotype Karp type was identified by nested polymerase chain reaction (NPCR) in the 4 fatal cases (Table 1)
Summary
Scrub typhus is an important public health problem in China, especially in Guangzhou city. We describe an atypical outbreak of the disease with case fatalities, from a park in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, that could turn out to be a potential scrub typhus epidemic site. Scrub typhus (Tsutsugamushi disease) is a febrile illness caused by the rickettsial bacterium, Orientia tsutsugamushi. It is transmitted by the bites of infected chiggers of the Trombiculidae family, especially those of the genus Leptotrombidium [1]. It is estimated that over half (55%) of the world’s population live in scrub typhus endemic areas, and that about one million cases occur annually [12]. The incident population have spread from occupational population to general population such as the elderly, children, pregnant women and tourists [2,15,16,17]
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