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Biology of Orientia tsutsugamushi

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Rickettsiales

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Abstract

Orientia tsutsugamushi is an intracellular, Gram-negative bacterium belonging to order Rickettsiales and is the causative agent of scrub typhus. The organism is transmitted to human host by chiggers; the larval stage of trombiculid mites and transovarial transmission is thought to be the only mechanism for its maintenance in the mites. The disease occurs widely in the Palaearctic, Oriental, and Australasian regions, including south-east Asia where it can account for 10–19 % of patients admitted to hospital with acute undifferentiated fever. Scrub typhus can be diagnosed by direct methods including isolation and DNA detection, and indirect serological methods. Presently, the drugs of choice are doxycycline and azithromycin. Typing of the strains has been performed using serology in the past, and presently it is done based on genetic analysis of the antigen genes of Orientia species.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Wardha, India

    Rahul Narang

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  1. Rahul Narang
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Correspondence to Rahul Narang .

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  1. Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, USA

    Sunil Thomas

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Narang, R. (2016). Biology of Orientia tsutsugamushi . In: Thomas, S. (eds) Rickettsiales. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46859-4_18

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