Detection Of Orientia tsutsugamushi Tsa Gene From Acute Febrile Scrub Typhus Fever Cases In West Bengal , India.

Scrub typhus is popularly known as the “tsutsugamushi disease”, after the name of its causative agent, Orientia tsutsugamushi. O. tsutsugamushi is a gram-negative, obliterate, intracellular bacterium, and scrub typhus is a very rapidly emerging disease that has been neglected for years. Globally, around one billion people are reported to be affected from this disease, and a million of them are said to suffer from it annually. Considering the rampant intensity of scrub typhus, we have applied different analytical tools like DNA extraction, Sandwich ELISA and Nested PCR to detect and investigate the O. tsutsugamushi Tsa gene from the blood samples of the patients collected from the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. We have prepared a systematic, statistical observation and critical analyses of the scrub typhus IgM positive patients based on certain parameters like gender, age groups, distribution among the different districts and months etc, which will be highly informative in analyzing the source and distribution of the disease. In addition, it will also be potentially tactful in order to curb further spread of the disease.