Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Scrub Typhus

Definition

Scrub typhus is an infectious disease that is transmitted to humans from field mice and rats through the bite of mites that live on the animals. The main symptoms of the disease are fever, a wound at the site of the bite, a spotted rash on the trunk, and swelling of the lymph glands.

Description

Scrub typhus is caused by Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, a tiny parasite about the size of bacteria that belongs to the family Rickettsiaceae. Under the microscope, rickettsiae are either rod-like (bacilli) or spherical (cocci) in shape. Because they are intracellular parasites, they can live only within the cells of other animals.

R. tsutsugamushi lives primarily in mites that belong to the species Leptotrombidium (Trombicula) akamushi and Leptotrombidium...