Five Children Treated for Scrub Typhus at BHU as Seasonal Fever Cases Rise

VARANASI: Five children showing signs of scrub typhus were treated at BHU hospital over a 15-day period as doctors across Varanasi reported a wider seasonal increase in patients with fever, body ache and respiratory complaints.

Professor Sunil Rao of BHU’s paediatrics department said an average of two to three children a week were being identified with scrub-typhus symptoms after testing. Dr Ashok Rai, a former national office-bearer of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, said some children develop severe fever followed by muscle pain and, in certain cases, breathlessness around the fourth or fifth day.

The local report said more than 50 scrub-typhus patients, including about 20 children, had attended government and private hospitals. It also reported the death of a two-year-old girl at a private hospital two days earlier. Those aggregated figures came from the newspaper’s hospital reporting rather than a published district surveillance bulletin and should be read with that limitation.

Scrub typhus is caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi and is transmitted through the bite of infected larval mites, commonly called chiggers. Exposure is more likely in scrub vegetation, grassy ground and areas where the mites’ animal hosts are present. It does not spread between people through ordinary contact.

Symptoms can resemble other seasonal infections: high fever, headache, muscle or joint pain, weakness and sometimes a rash. Some patients develop an eschar, a dark scab at the bite site, but its absence does not rule out infection. Because the presentation overlaps with dengue, malaria, viral fever and other illnesses, diagnosis should be made by a clinician rather than social-media symptom lists.

Doctors said fever patients were crowding OPD, registration, testing and medicine counters at the divisional hospital in Kabirchaura, Deen Dayal Upadhyay district hospital, Shastri Hospital in Ramnagar and other centres. Dr Manish Yadav of the district hospital reported 70 to 80 fever patients a day over the previous week.

Parents should seek medical advice if a child’s fever persists for three days, or sooner if there is difficulty breathing, unusual sleepiness, dehydration, repeated vomiting, seizures or rapid deterioration. Antibiotics and tests should not be started without a doctor’s assessment. Early treatment is effective, but delay can allow complications.

Prevention is practical rather than dramatic: use covered footwear and full clothing in dense grass or scrub, keep vegetation controlled around homes, wash after outdoor exposure and check children for bites after play. Ordinary household cleanliness helps, though the vector is not the same as the mosquito that transmits dengue.

The rise in fever cases does not mean every child has scrub typhus. It does mean clinicians and families should keep the illness in mind during the monsoon. Varanasi’s health authorities can reduce confusion by publishing weekly laboratory-confirmed counts and clear guidance. Until then, the safest response is prompt evaluation of persistent fever, not panic or self-medication.