Follow-up analysis on the epidemic strains of Orientia tsutsugamushi in the first outbreak of scrub typhus in Henan Province, China.
To obtain knowledge of the genetic characteristics and types of the epidemic strains of Orientia tsutsugamushi in the first outbreak of scrub typhus in Henan Province, genus and type-specific primers were employed to amplify a fragment of the gene of 56 kDa protein. Serotyping demonstrated that, of the 19 patients [15 patients in recovery phase (10-40 days) and 4 of patients in acute phase (1-7 days)], 4 were infected with Gilliam type, 8 with Kato type, 6 with Karp type, and 1 with an unknown type. Successful genotyping was obtained for only 3 patients, indicating that 2 were infected with Karp type and 1 with Taiwan Kato type. Thus the outbreak of scrub typhus in Henan Province was caused by at least two epidemic strains.
Zhang
Lijuan
L
Department of Rickettsiology, National Institute of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China. zhanglijuan@icdc.cn
Jin
Zhang
Z
Xia
Shengli
S
Zhang
Jingshan
J
Li
Menglei
M
Fu
Xiuping
X
Luan
Mingchun
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012285:Orientia tsutsugamushi / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012612:Scrub Typhus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000503:physiopathology