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Scrub typhus, a disease with increasing threat in Guangdong, China
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 2, p e0113968 (2015), PLoS ONE
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2015.
-
Abstract
- There has been a rapid increase in the number of scrub typhus cases in Guangdong Province, China. For this reason, an epidemiologic study was conducted to understand the characteristics of scrub typhus epidemics in Guangdong. From 2006 to 2013, the incidence of human cases increased from 0.4321 to 3.5917 per 100,000 with a bimodal peak in human cases typically occurring between May and November. To detect the prevalence of Orientia tsutsugamushi among suspected human cases and rodents, we performed ELISA tests of IgM/IgG and nested PCR tests on 59 whole blood samples from the suspected cases and 112 spleen samples from the rodents. Suspected cases tested positive for anti-O. tsutsugamushi IgM and IgG 66.1% (39/59) and 50.8% (30/59) of the time, respectively. Additionally, 20.3% (12/59) of blood samples and 13.4% (15/112) of spleen samples were positive for PCR. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that there were four definable clusters among the 27 nucleotide sequences of the 56-kDa antigen genes: 44.4% Karp (12/27), 25.9% Kato (7/27), 22.2% Gilliam (6/27) and 7.4% TA763 (2/27). We concluded many suspected cases may result in diagnostic errors; therefore, it is necessary to perform laboratory tests on suspected cases in hospitals. The high infection rate of O. tsutsugamushi among the limited rodents tested suggested that further rodent sampling throughout the province is necessary to further define high-risk areas. Furthermore, the multiple co-circulating genotypes of O. tsutsugamushi play a key role in the pervasiveness of scrub typhus in the Guangdong area.
- Subjects :
- China
Orientia tsutsugamushi
Molecular Sequence Data
lcsh:Medicine
Spleen
Disease
Scrub typhus
law.invention
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
law
Genotype
medicine
Prevalence
Animals
Humans
lcsh:Science
Polymerase chain reaction
Phylogeny
Multidisciplinary
biology
Geography
Incidence (epidemiology)
Incidence
lcsh:R
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
bacterial infections and mycoses
Virology
Molecular Typing
medicine.anatomical_structure
Scrub Typhus
Population Surveillance
lcsh:Q
Nested polymerase chain reaction
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 10
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8dc97422fd4b95a849dbf4c794a46b92