Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Rickettsia patients in Cuu Long River Delta from May 2018 to October 2019
Main Article Content
Abstract
Rickettsia is the cause of Rickettsioses, an acute infectious disease transmitted by arthropods
(mites, ticks, fleas, lice) that can cause serious epidemic outbreak. The disease has diverse
manifestations but is not specific depending on each Rickettsia species, so it is easy to miss or
misdiagnose. Studies on Rickettsia disease in Vietnam have been mainly concentrated in the
North and Central regions. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of
Rickettsia infection in four hospitals in the Cuu Long Delta region and describe the epidemiological
and clinical characteristics of the infection. Diagnosis of Rickettsia is done by Realtime - PCR with
specific primer pairs. Among 131 patients with acute fever, 38/131 (29.01%) had Rickettsia infection;
35/131 (26.72%) had tick fever, 2/131 (1.52%) had epidemic typhus fever, and 1/131 (0.76%) had
typhus transmitted by rat fleas. Rickettsia infection was more likely in women (55.3% vs. 44.7% in
men), people living in rural areas (73.68%), and people whose occupations were farmers (47.4%).
Rickettsia infection was also more common in the months July and August. Frequently reported
symptoms were fever (100%), headache (97.4%), sores-eschar (84.2%), and myalgia (63.2%).
Article Details
Keywords
Rickettsia, Rickettsioses, eschar
References
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