scrub typhus: New cases of a bacterial infection called “scrub typhus” are emerging in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to reports, four cases of scrub typhus have been found in Shimla’s Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Janak Raj said that the infection spreads through the bite of an infected chigger.
Most of the patients of scrub typhus are found in mountainous areas. It is a bacterial infection that causes death of people. Some of its symptoms are similar to Chikungunya.
According to health experts, to avoid this, permethrin and benzyl benzoate should be sprayed on clothes and bedding. Along with this, if someone is found to have symptoms of scrub typhus, then he should be immediately admitted to the hospital so that treatment can be started as soon as possible.
The disease mainly occurs in villages and animal contact is said to be the main cause of this bacterial infection. Scrub typhus is more prevalent in rural areas where there is a high concentration of livestock and wild shrubs.
In scrub typhus, the patient experiences difficulty in breathing, jaundice, vomiting, nausea, joint pain or shivering along with fever. But in cases of severe infection, lumps are seen to develop on the neck, under the arms and above the hips. Apart from this, the place or part of the body where the insect has bitten turns red.
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