Rickettsia tsutsugamushi causes an acute, febrile illness of human, Tsutsugamushi disease, which is characterized by fever, headache, rash and eschar. In Korea, there has been an increasing concern over rickettsiosis since Tsutusgamushi
disease was first reported in 1986. We experienced 89 patients with Tsutsugamushi disease over 5 years from 1989 to 1993.
@ES The results are as follows:
@EN 1. Of 89 patients, 36 were males and 53 were females. The mean age was 52 years.
2. Seasonally, the 75(84%) of 89 patients occurred from October to December. Patients were distributed throughout the whole country.
3. The clinical symptoms and signs were fever with chill(99%), headache(78%), myalgia(76%), rash(55%), eschar(49%), conjunctival injection(39%), pharyngeal injection(39%) and lymphadenopathy(37%).
4. Laboratory findings were elevation of transaminase(AST 74%, ALT 78%), hypoalbuminomia(26%), proteinuria (26%), hematuria(27%) and interstitial pneumonia(25%).
5. The mean time to defeverscence was 1.98 days with doxycycline therapy, 1.58 days with tetracycline therapy and 2 days with chloramphenicol therapy. All patients cured without sequellae and there were not recurrences.
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