Ho Chi Minh City-located Children's Hospital 1 said that it had just received a baby girl in Tay Ninh Province who had a fever. The patient was hospitalized because of severe anemia with a red blood cell volume of 16 percent, an enlarged liver 4cm below the right lower quadrant and grade 4 splenomegaly. Tests carried out at the hospital’s emergency room showed severe infection, lung damage and right pleural effusion.
According to Associate Professor Dr. Phung Nguyen The Nguyen, Head of the Children's Hospital 1’s Infectious Diseases Department, this is the first case of Scrub typhus at Children's Hospital 1 and the first case in children diagnosed in the region.
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Enlarged lymph nodes on the baby girl |
The patient has sustained high fever, acute kidney injury and acute liver failure, decreased platelet counts, and lung damage with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to diffuse inflammation of both lungs, and the marrow diagram shows hemophagocytosis. The baby was put on a ventilator due to lung damage and received a blood transfusion; she also took Vancomycin and Carbapenem antibiotics due to severe pneumonia, sepsis, and severe multi-organ failure.
After two-day treatment with the above antibiotics, the baby still had a persistent high fever. Through careful examination, skin lesions on the chest were noted consistent with Scrub typhus.
The results of isolating the agent in the blood by PCR also showed that Orientia tsutsugamushi -the pathogen that causes typhus fever - was consistent with the child's condition. The baby was given the antibiotic Levofloxacin. After three days of treatment with Levofloxacin, the baby had no fever, organ function indicators gradually improved and she was discharged from the hospital after 10 days of treatment.
Medical workers advised people to avoid contact with infected chiggers to reduce their risk of getting scrub typhus. Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus, is a disease caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi. Scrub typhus is spread to people through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites). The most common symptoms of scrub typhus include fever, headache, body aches, enlarged lymph nodes and sometimes rash. Symptoms of scrub typhus usually begin within 10 days after being bitten.
