Medicina Pulmonar e Respiratória

Pulmonary Manifestations of Scrub Typhus: Wisdom May Prevail Obstacles

Abstract

Surender Kashyap and Anjali Solanki

Scrub typhus is a bacterial infection caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. The disease is prevalent in a very large geographical area and usually presents with undifferentiated febrile illness. Pulmonary manifestations impart further challenge for clinician due to nonspecific clinical presentation, lack of sensitive and specific diagnostic tests and high incidence of complications and mortality, if not treated timely. Proper elucidation of underlying pathogenetic mechanisms and immune response is essential to understand the sequence of events, clinical implications, prognostic factors and prospects for vaccine development for this potentially fatal infection.