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. 2022 May 31;7(6):88.
doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7060088.

Systematic Surveillance of Rickettsial Diseases in 27 Hospitals from 26 Provinces throughout Vietnam

Nguyen Vu Trung  1   2 , Le Thi Hoi  1 , Tran Mai Hoa  1 , Dang Thi Huong  1 , Ma Thi Huyen  1 , Vuong Quang Tien  1 , Dao Thi Tuyet Mai  1 , Nguyen Thi Thu Ha  3 , Nguyen Van Kinh  4 , Christina M Farris  5 , Allen L Richards  5   6
Affiliations

Systematic Surveillance of Rickettsial Diseases in 27 Hospitals from 26 Provinces throughout Vietnam

Nguyen Vu Trung et al. Trop Med Infect Dis. .

Abstract

In Vietnam, the public health burden of rickettsial infections continues to be underestimated due to knowledge gaps in the epidemiology of these diseases. We conducted a systematic study among 27 hospitals from 26 provinces in eight ecological regions throughout Vietnam to investigate the prevalence, distribution, and clinical characteristics of rickettsial diseases. We recruited 1834 patients in the study from April 2018 to October 2019. The findings showed that rickettsial diseases were common among undifferentiated febrile patients, with 564 (30.8%) patients positive by qPCR for scrub typhus, murine typhus or spotted fever. Scrub typhus (484, 85.8%) was the most common rickettsial disease, followed by murine typhus (67, 11.9%) and spotted fever (10, 1.8%). Rickettsial diseases were widely distributed in all regions of Vietnam and presented with nonspecific clinical manifestations.

Keywords: epidemiology; hospital surveillance; murine typhus; rickettsial diseases; scrub typhus; spotted fever rickettsioses.

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Conflict of interest statement

The views expressed in this article reflect the results of research conducted by the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the United States Government. Christina M. Farris and Allen L. Richards were employees of the United States government. This work was prepared as part of their official duties. Title 17 U.S.C. 105 provides that “copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government”. Title 17 U.S.C. 101 defines a U.S. Government work as “work prepared by a military service member or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties”.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Enrollment flow of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequency and Distribution of Enrolled Patients. (a) The number of patients that participated in the study by province of hospital. (b) The number of patients by province of residence. The color corresponds to patient distribution with the darker the color, the higher the number of enrollees.
Figure 3
Figure 3
qPCR results for scrub typhus, murine typhus and spotted fever among 1834 febrile patients in the study.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of confirmed cases of: (a) Scrub Typhus, n = 484; (b) Murine Typhus, n = 67; and (c) Spotted Fever, n = 10 (c) by provinces. The color density corresponds to the number of confirmed cases: the darker the color, the higher the number of confirmed cases. The fraction shows the number of confirmed case (numerator) and the number of recruited patients (denominator) for each province.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of confirmed cases of: (a) Scrub Typhus, n = 484; (b) Murine Typhus, n = 67; and (c) Spotted Fever, n = 10 (c) by provinces. The color density corresponds to the number of confirmed cases: the darker the color, the higher the number of confirmed cases. The fraction shows the number of confirmed case (numerator) and the number of recruited patients (denominator) for each province.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Frequency of Patients with Confirmed Scrub Typhus, Murine Typhus and Spotted Fever in the North and the South of Vietnam by Month.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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