Journal
EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Volume 17, Issue 9, Pages 1659-1663Publisher
CENTERS DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION
DOI: 10.3201/eid1709.100960
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Funding
- Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System, a Division of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center [0000188M.0931.001.A0074]
- National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute [EY090703]
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We report a case of scrub typhus in a 54-year-old man who was bitten by several terrestrial leeches during a trip to Chiloe Island in southern Chile in 2006. A molecular sample, identified as related to Orientia tsutsugamushi based on the sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, was obtained from a biopsy specimen of the eschar on the patient's leg. Serologic analysis showed immunoglobulin G conversion against O. tsutsugamushi whole cell antigen. This case and its associated molecular analyses suggest that an Orientia-like agent is present in the Western Hemisphere that can produce scrub typhus-like illness. The molecular analysis suggests that the infectious agent is closely related, although not identical, to members of the Orientia sp. from Asia.
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