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. 2023 Jul 25;18(7):e0289126.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289126. eCollection 2023.

Clinical, laboratory, and molecular epidemiology of Orientia tsutsugamushi infection from Southwestern India

Kiran Chunduru  1   2 , Manoj A R  1 , Subhadra Poornima  3 , Manjunatha Hande H  4 , Mridula M  5 , George M Varghese  6 , Ramakrishna Devaki  7 , Kavitha Saravu  1   2
Affiliations

Clinical, laboratory, and molecular epidemiology of Orientia tsutsugamushi infection from Southwestern India

Kiran Chunduru et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Scrub typhus is a vector borne disease which in a proportion of patients causes multiorgan involvement and death if untreated. Infecting genotype and virulence factors play a role in severity of infection and outcome. The current prospective cohort study was undertaken to elucidate the severity of illness in scrub typhus patients and to identify the circulating genotypes in Karnataka, India. A total of 214 patients of either gender from 9 districts of Karnataka and one patient each from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, India were enrolled in the study. With a predefined severity criterion, 132 patients were segregated to the severe group. Multi organ involvement was seen in 59 (44.69%) patients. Phylogenetic analysis revealed JG-v like (48.97%), Karp-like (26.53%), JG-like (22.44%), and Kato-like (2.04%) strains in Karnataka. Patients infected with Orientia tsutsugamushi Karp-like strains had respiratory involvement (69.2%), cardiovascular involvement (46.2%) and thrombocytopenia (23.1%) and required higher hospital resource utilization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Clinical features of the scrub typhus cohort stratified among severe and non-severe.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Venn diagram showing overlap and distribution of four major complications in scrub typhus cohort (n = 111).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Phylogenetic tree of Orientia tsutsugamushi isolates from scrub typhus patients in Karnataka.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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