• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2012

Objectives: To survey the awareness of patient to scrub typhus to provide data for education and communication concerning scrub typhus. Methods: Patients with scrub typhus (case group, n=299) and people without scrub typhus within the previous 2 years (control group, n=598) were matched for age (within 5 years), gender, and occupation (farmer or non-farmer). The participants were recruited from 15 study areas between October and December 2006. Results: The awareness rate of scrub typhus was 75.1%, and was significantly higher than in the case group (79.4% vs. 66.6%, respectively; p<0.01). The major routes of awareness were from 'past history of scrub typhus in family members or neighbors' (54.9%), 'television' (28.3%), and their past history of scrub typhus (5.5%). The average correct rate of scrub typhus was 48.4%, and the correct response rate of cases was significantly higher than controls (p<0.01). Especially, the correct rate of etiology, incubation period, route of transmission, and acquired immunity was <40%. Through conditional logistic regression test, the factor significantly associated with awareness in case group was age (odds ratio [OR], 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-0.98). And the factors associated with awareness in control group were female (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.03-2.36) age (OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.96-0.99), family history of scrub typhus (OR, 10.18; 95% CI, 1.37-75.99), history of receiving prevention education (OR, 8.47; 95% CI, 1.14-63.00). Conclusions: The rate of awareness was relatively low in study population. Thus, effective working guidelines and educational program to prevent scrub typhus must be developed, and publicity activities about the prevention of scrub typhus are needed for high-risk groups.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.863-878
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• 2007

The time-spatial distribution of Scrub typhus and its relationship with environmental ecology, such as climate, and habitat change are analyzed in respect of the geography of disease. Scrub typhus was firstly reported in 1951, and reemerged in 1986 mainly in southwestern Korea. later it has sharply increased and spreaded out toward whole country in 1998 and 2004, except mid-eastern mountainous region. Hwasung City is the typical example of sudden upsurge of Scrub typhus. High incidence of Scrub typhus patients might due to elevated temperature and decreased precipitation during the summer, as well as milder autumn. Sharp increase of Scrub typhus patients at rural area since 1980's might also be the result of the rapid changes of land use pattern, which eventually have contributed for the active development of dense vegetation and propagation of chigger mites around cultivated land.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.197-208
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• 2020

This study was carried out to analyze spatial and temporal incidence characteristics of scrub typhus and predict the future incidence of scrub typhus since the incidences of scrub typhus have been rapidly increased among vector-borne diseases. A maximum entropy (MaxEnt) ecological model was implemented to predict spatial distribution and incidence rate of scrub typhus using spatial data sets on environmental and social variables. Additionally, relationships between the incidence of scrub typhus and critical spatial data were analyzed. Elevation and temperature were analyzed as dominant spatial factors which influenced the growth environment of Leptotrombidium scutellare (L. scutellare) which is the primary vector of scrub typhus. A temporal number of diseases by scrub typhus was predicted by a deep neural network (DNN). The model considered the time-lagged effect of scrub typhus. The DNN-based prediction model showed that temperature, precipitation, and humidity in summer had significant influence factors on the activity of L. scutellare and the number of diseases at fall. Moreover, the DNN-based prediction model had superior performance compared to a conventional statistical prediction model. Finally, the spatial and temporal models were used under climate change scenario. The future characteristics of scrub typhus showed that the maximum incidence rate would increase by 8%, areas of the high potential of incidence rate would increase by 9%, and disease occurrence duration would expand by 2 months. The results would contribute to the disease management and prediction for the health of residents in terms of public health.

• 보건세계
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• v.51 no.10 s.578
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• pp.22-24
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• 2004

무더운 여름 뒤에 오는 쾌적한 가을철에는 전염성 질환이 줄어들고 건강 유지가 비교적 쉽다. 그러나 야외 나들이 기회가 많아져 뱀이나 벌, 해충에 물리는 일이 많고 마른풀이나 잡초를 통해 전염되는 신증후(유행성)출혈열, 쯔쯔가무시증, 렙토스피라증 같은 `급성 열성 풍토병`이 가을철에 드물지 않게 생긴다. 가을철에 주의해야 할 질환과 치료법을 알아본다.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the status of Scrub typhus, Leptospirosis and HFRS(hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome) among farmers with febrile illness. Methods: We involved a total of 841 farmers who had febrile illness(508 and 333 village residents were, respectively, three and four district of Gyeongju city) selected during autumn of 2014 and 2015. Data were collected by survey questionnaires and blood sample examination. Results: Serum response rate for Scrub typhus and Leptospirosis was 1.5% each and 1.9% for HFRS. Serum response rate for Scrub typhus was significantly higher for tick-bite cases(38.5%), while Leptospirosis was significantly higher for those who were in fruit-planting work(23.1%). Similarly, serum response rate was significantly higher for HFRS who were working in venyl green house work(25.0%). Conclusions: Government authority should develop effective and efficient preventive strategies to create awareness of infectious diseases among farmers. Extending information, education and communication be reached to farmers that could change their perception and help early diagnosis and treatment and reduce the disease burden and its complication.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.420-427
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• 2019

Scrub typhus is a fever-related disease that is commonly diagnosed during the autumn season. The number of patients affected by this disease continues to increase every year. However, the cause of the disease and the regional differences of its incidence are poorly understood. This study examined the epidemiological features and regional differences in the incidence of scrub typhus. The monthly incidence of cases from all reports rose to more than 90% during the fall season (October~December). Based on the analysis of the 18,851 cases in the epidemiological investigation, 14,777 (78.4%) and 4,074 (21.6%) cases occurred in high and low occurrence areas, respectively. Moreover, there were more female cases than male cases (males: 7,233 [38.4%]; females: 11,618 [61.6%]; P< 0.001). The clinical symptoms, including fever, chills, myalgia, and eschar of the body, were noted in 16,688 (89.1%), 11,533 (61.2%),11,439 (60.7%), and 6,005 (45.4%) cases, respectively. The incidence rates were higher for Gyeongnam, Jeonam, Jeonbuk, and Chungnam provinces. The areas with a high occurrence of scrub typhus were consistent with the areas experiencing a high distribution of Leptotrombidium scutellare. The incidence of scrub typhus has been rising owing to the increasing population of ticks due to global warming and increased agricultural and outdoor activities. Thus, continuous management of patients and preventive environmental measures are needed to control this disease.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.149-158
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• 2009

Tsutsugamushi fever occupies more than 80% of total fall epidemic diseases and has an incubation period of 1 or 2 weeks as well. We have assumed that the incubation period distribution is gamma and therefore, reach an agreement that the infected distribution is normal with ${\hat{\mu}}=309.92$, ${\hat{\sigma}}=14.154$ by back calculation method. The infection cases are found severely large around the month of October. The infection case distribution demonstrates the incidence number increasing rapidly and progresses fast during the month of November. In this study, we have calculated the future prevalence number of maximum 1,200 people by inferred infection probability and incubation period distribution with some sort of limitation that the trend of increasing incidence number is not taking into an account. We considered the SIRS model which is also known as epidemic model, familiar to interaction between epidemiological classes. Our estimated parameters converged well with the initial parameter values.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.304-312
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• 2012

In this study, for behavior clinical signs and blood tests when autumn sudden fevered disease, Tsutsugamushi Disease is Single infected with mixing hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrom.221 positive patients, who have antibody titer more than 1:80 in serologic examination of Tsutsugamushi Disease in a general hospital, Jeollanam-do province, were adopted as a Analysis. in respect of frequency. Single infection patients of Tsutsugamushi Disease were 183 and mixed infection patients with Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome were 38. In respect of age, patients over the 70's were mostly infected. In respect of sex, male patients were 70(31.7%) and female patients were 151(66.8%) Women were more infected than men. In respect of outbreak time, the more than 70% disease occurrence of all was charged in October and November and it also occurred in spring. In the clinical signs, fever(p=0.028), urtication(p=0.000) and muscle pain(p=0.000) of mixed infection was more higher than single infection. And in the blood tests, AST(p=0.000), ALT(p=0.000), blood urea nitrogen(p=0.002), total bilirubin(p=0.000) value of mixed infection was more higher than single infection.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.364-371
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• 2020

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting surveillance of climate change vectors across all regions in Korea to counteract the spread of these vectors. As a part of this surveillance project, wild rodents were captured using traps to investigate the spread of chigger mites, the vector of Tsutsugamushi disease, across Jeonbuk, Jinan region, and to conduct studies on pathogens. Twenty samplers were used to sample chigger mites weekly from September to November in four different locations. Six hundred and eleven chigger mites of eight varying types were captured. The largest number of captured chigger mites was N. tamiyai, with 434 samples (71.0%). With the addition of 66 wild rodents captured from traps, 3,050 chigger mites were sampled, which yielded a Chigger index of 46.2. The monthly Chigger index was highest in November with a value of 206.1. the result of the test conducted in the presence of pathogens showed two positive results, each from May and September, out of all 85 pools. This result was aligned with the increased frequency in tsutsugamushi disease cases in spring and fall seasons.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.482-482
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• 2005