{"id":19636,"date":"2026-09-22T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T06:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=19636"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:27:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:57:44","slug":"scrub-typhus-upsc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/scrub-typhus-upsc\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrub Typhus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Scrub Typhus Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recent death of an Anna University student at Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) due to scrub typhus, has once again brought this bacterial infection to the fore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Scrub Typhus<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>bacterial infection<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> caused by the <\/span><b>bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is spread by the bite of <\/span><b>infected larval mites or chiggers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Symptoms<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Symptoms usually begin <\/span><b>within 10 days of infection<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It includes fever and <\/span><b>chills, headache, body aches<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and muscle pain, a dark, scab-like region at the site of the chigger bite (also known as eschar),<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Mental changes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ranging from confusion to coma, enlarged lymph nodes and a rash.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Timely treatment is critical. If left untreated, severe illness from scrub typhus infection can lead to <\/span><b>acute respiratory distress syndrome<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (ARDS), shock, meningitis and kidney failure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>not a contagious disease.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Treatment<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is <\/span><b>no vaccine as yet for scrub typhus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should be treated with the <\/span><b>antibiotics doxycycline or azithromycin.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Typhus Fever<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Typhus (or typhus fever) is the name used for several <\/span><b>different types of bacterial infections<\/b> <b>spread by bug bites<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that cause similar symptoms, like high fever and rash.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are three types of illnesses <\/span><b>commonly called typhus<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Epidemic Typhus:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is caused by <\/span><b>Rickettsia prowazeki<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and it is <\/span><b>spread to people<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through contact with <\/span><b>infected body lice.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Scrub Typhus:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is caused by <\/span><b>Orientia tsutsugamushi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>spread by chiggers.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Murine Typhus:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is caused by <\/span><b>Rickettsia typhi spread by fleas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It occurs in tropical and subtropical climates around the world.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/what-is-scrub-typhus-explained\/article71490796.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scrub Typhus is a bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. Read more about Scrub Typhus, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Key Facts, News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":72086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,10422,22,23],"class_list":["post-19636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-scrub-typhus","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125717,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions\/125717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}