Typhoid versus typhus fever in post-earthquake Nepal.

Buddha Basnyat

doi:10.1016/s2214-109x(16)30094-8

Abstract

Typhoid versus typhus fever in post-earthquake Nepal.

Highlights

A few months after the 7·8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25, 2015, and the subsequent strong aftershocks, outbreaks of scrub typhus were reported from various parts of the country, especially from districts affected by the earthquake.[1]. These outbreaks were thought to be due to people and rodents living in close proximity in temporary shelters after the earthquake
Part of this poor awareness of typhus fever relates to the widespread use of the serological Widal test[4,5] for typhoid, which often presents with clinical features similar to and indistinguishable from typhus
Crossreactivity between typhoid, typhus, leptospirosis, malaria, and other prevalent organisms with the Widal test leads to a common misdiagnosis of typhoid fever

Summary

Introduction

A few months after the 7·8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25, 2015, and the subsequent strong aftershocks, outbreaks of scrub typhus were reported from various parts of the country, especially from districts affected by the earthquake.[1]. Typhus in Nepal has been well reported in large studies,[2,3] the earthquake posed problems in diagnosis and treatment of the outbreaks, primarily because of poor awareness of the disease.

Results

Conclusion