Tsutsugamushi disease is one of the important acute febrile illnesses with the high incidence during the late fall throughtout Korea, especially in rural areas.
So, to define the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of Tsutsugamushi diseases,
we analized 59 cases of Tsutsugamushi diseases admitted to InJe University, Pusan Paik Hospital between 1986 and 1993
@ES The results were as follows;
@EN 1) The ratio of male and female was 1:1.4 (24 cases : 35 cases), indicating that incidence was prominantly high in female and large proportion of the patients were over 40 years old 944 cases, 75%)
2) The number of annual incidence from 1986 to 1993 were 1, 6, 8, 9 11, 10, 9, 5, respectively and there was peak occurrence between October (25 cases, 42%) and November (30 cases, 51%).
3) The majority of patients resided in rural area (22 cases, 37%), or had prevalence area exposure (25 cases, 42%). The patients were distributed throughout the whole area of Pusan and Kyungnam province.
4) The most frequent symtpoms were fever (59 cases, 100%) and chills (49 cases, 83%).
5) Rash and eschar were observed in 80%(51 of 59) and 70%(41 of 59), respectively. Lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly were also observed in 20%(12 of 59) and 12%(7 of 59), respectively.
6) The laboratory findings showed the elevation of AST in 75%(44 of 59), ALT in 70%(41 of 59), ESR in 56%(33 of 59), and leukocytosis in 32%(19 of 59). Hypoalbuminemia and proteinuria were also observed in 62%(36 of 59) and 32%(19 of 59),
respectively.
7) Treatment was effectively carried out by Tetracycline or Doxycycline and the mean duration of fever following treatment was 3.5 days
Tsutsugamushi disease is one of the important acute febrile illnesses with the high incidence between October and November in whole area of Pusan and Kyungnam province.
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