Clinical and sub-clinical characteristics of rickettsioses at 108 Military Central Hospital from 2020 to 2021

  • Trinh Van Son 108 Military Central Hospital
  • Nguyen Thi Hiep 108 Military Central Hospital
  • Nguyen Binh An 108 Military Central Hospital
  • Nguyen Danh Anh 108 Military Central Hospital
  • Vuong Phuc Duong 108 Military Central Hospital

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Keywords

Rickettsioses, scrub typhus, clinical and subclinical features

Abstract

Objective: Rickettsioses remains one of the most common infectious diseases in Vietnam, the atypical disease’s manifestation often leads to misdiagnosis with other diseases and results in a delayed proper treatment. The study aimed to characterise the clinical and laboratory features of rickettsioses. Subject and method: This was a retrospective cohort study. The clinical and sub-clinical features of rickettsioses were described. All patients admitted to the 108 Military Central Hospital, Hanoi from May 2020 to September 2021. Result: There were 22 patients enrolled into the study and 15/22 (68.2%) hospitalised 5 days after fever onset. The most common clinical features were abrupt fever (100%), headache (100%), myalgia (100%), and skin hyperemia (100%). Some rare signs were recorded: Eschars (9.1%), lymphadenopathy (0%), and rash (4.8%). The laboratory findings showed 95% of the patients with elevated liver transaminases and 51.1% cases with thrombocytopenia. All of the patients were treated with doxycycline and 100% (22/22) fully recovered. The defervescence time was 74.9 ± 38.6 hours and the hospitalisation time was 7.1 ± 1.4 days. Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the appearance of longer than five days fever, severe headache, thrombocytopenia, and elevated liver transaminase could suggest a diagnosis of rickettsioses.

Article Details

References

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