Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2011 Sep;17(9):1659-63.
doi: 10.3201/eid1709.100960.

Endemic scrub typhus-like illness, Chile

M Elvira Balcells  1 , Ricardo Rabagliati, Patricia García, Helena Poggi, David Oddó, Marcela Concha, Katia Abarca, Ju Jiang, Daryl J Kelly, Allen L Richards, Paul A Fuerst
Affiliations
Case Reports

Endemic scrub typhus-like illness, Chile

M Elvira Balcells et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Sep.

Abstract

We report a case of scrub typhus in a 54-year-old man who was bitten by several terrestrial leeches during a trip to Chiloé Island in southern Chile in 2006. A molecular sample, identified as related to Orientia tsutsugamushi based on the sequence of the16S rRNA gene, was obtained from a biopsy specimen of the eschar on the patient's leg. Serologic analysis showed immunoglobulin G conversion against O. tsutsugamushi whole cell antigen. This case and its associated molecular analyses suggest that an Orientia-like agent is present in the Western Hemisphere that can produce scrub typhus-like illness. The molecular analysis suggests that the infectious agent is closely related, although not identical, to members of the Orientia sp. from Asia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Evidence of acute infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue in patient admitted for treatment of scrub typhus-like symptoms in Chile. A) Rash on admission, left arm. B) Necrotizing eschar with erythematous halo over the left leg.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Results of biopsy analysis of tissue sample from eschar on the left leg of patient admitted for treatment of scrub typhus–like symptoms, Chile. A) Leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Hematoxylin and eosin stained; original magnification ×200, inset ×400. B) Endothelial cell, showing nucleus (N) within the cytoplasm (C, inset). Arrows show similar round and oval organisms, electron-dense, surrounded by electron-lucent halo of rickettsial type microorganisms. Electron microscopy; original magnification ×15,000, inset ×20,000.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Evolutionary relationships of Chiloé Island sample compared with other isolates of Orientia tsutsugamushi, with O. chuto sp. nov. and with taxa from Rickettsia, determined by the method of neighbor joining (15). The tree is drawn to scale; scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. Numbers on branches represent percentage of 1,000 bootstrap replicates that include the enclosed clade. Entries on the tree are identified by GenBank accession number and isolate name.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Walker DH, Raoult D. Introduction to rickettsioses and ehrlichioses. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JL, Dolin R, editors. Principles and practices of infectious diseases, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone; 2005. p. 2284–2318.
    1. Laval E. Historical review about the assistance to infectious diseases patients in Santiago, Chile, before the creation of Hospital Dr. Lucio Córdova. Rev Chilena Infectol. 2001;18:156–64.
    1. Enfermedades producidas por rickettsias: tifus exantemático y murino. Departamento de Epidemiología MINSAL. November, 1998. [cited 2011 Jul 5]. http://epi.minsal.cl/epi/html/public/tifusexen.htm
    1. Kelly DJ, Fuerst PA, Ching W-M, Richards AL. Scrub typhus: the geographic distribution of phenotypic and genotypic variants of Orientia tsutsugamushi. Clin Infect Dis. 2009;48:S203–30. 10.1086/596576 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Izzard L, Fuller A, Blacksell S, Paris D, Richards A, Aukkanit N, et al. Isolation of a novel Orientia species (O. chuto sp. nov.) from a patient infected in Dubai. J Clin Microbiol. 2010;48:4404–9. 10.1128/JCM.01526-10 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources