• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.124-128
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• 1992

A total of 275 wild hats captured in Korea here examined 011 the possibility that they will harhor and spread the inkctious pathog.cns of Hantaan virus and Rickettsia. They possessed ontihotlies in 3.6'K) blood sera against Hantaan virus by the indirect in~~nunofluoresccnctec hnique and showed relatively high serum titers with a range of 16 to 1014X. whereus 13.7\ulcorner0 of them were positive to Rickettsia. dividing into 3.3% against R. ~.sur,~ugc~rnusllr.Ri.1 k, against R. siht)ric.n tick ~vphus,a nd 4.4% against R. thai tick pphus. respectively. 11 was first confirmed in Korean wild hats that arc infccted with Hantaan virus and Rickettsia agents. and play a role as vector.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.377-382
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• 1998

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), scrub typhus, murine typhus and leptospirosis have been the principal acute febrile diseases in Korea. To evaluate the seroepidemiologic patterns of acute febrile illness, sera collected from 2,423 patients in 1996 were examined for antibodies against Hantaan virus, Orientia tsutsugamushi, Rickettsia typhi, and Borrelia burgdorferi by indirect immunofluorescent antibody technique (IFA) and macroscopic agglutination test for Leptospira interogans. Seropositive cases against Otsutsugamushi, Rickettsia typhi, Leptospira interogans and Hantaan virus were 192 (7.9%), 193 (8.0%), 12 (0.5%) and 324 (13.4%), respectively. Male was more affected in HFRS and murine typhus contrasting to scrub typhus and leptospirosis in female. Most positive cases occurred during October and November for scrub typhus, and during November and December for HFRS. These results showed similar patterns with previous epidemical data for recent couple of years, and possibly implied no significant changes occurred in ecologic situations for acute febrile diseases in Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1998

To study the relation between ectoparasite, Rickettsia and hanntan virus in bats, four order of Athropoda were collected from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum captured in Cheju and Eptesicus serotinus captured in Chungnamin from July 1989 to March 1998. Also antibody of Rickettsia and hanntan virus were detected by immunofluoroscent antibody technique and RT-PCR. The results are as follows. 1. Five species of Acarina were identified from E. serotinus: Leptotrobidium subakamushi of Trombiculidae, Macronyssus coreanus, Steatonyssuss spinosuss and Steatonychus superans of Macronyssidae, Argas vespertilionis of Metastigmata. 2. Ischnopsyllus needhami of Siphonaptera and Cimex of Hemiptera were identified from E. serotinus. 3. Cycteribia uenoi and Brachytarsina kanoi of Diptera were identified from R. ferrumequinum. 4. The positive rate of rickettsial antibodies in E. serotinus were 17.58%, 15.15%, 22.22%, 52.73% against R. tsutsugamushi, R. typhi, R. sibirica and R. thai tick typhus, respectively. The high positive rate of antibody related to the high content of Arthropoda. 5. The Positive rate of hantaan virus IFA antibodies were 3.4% (27 of 802) and hanntan virus infection rate 36.7% (22 of 60) by RT-PCR in bats. According these result, we showed that certain species of Athropoda isolated playa role as vector of Rickettsia in E. serotinus. Also bats playa role as a reservoir of hantaan virus in nature.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.575-580
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• 2019

In biological warfare, it is important to identify biological agents for proper treatment. We focused on developing a real-time RT-PCR kit that can detect multiple species of biological agents. AccuPower(R) Biothreat Real-Time RT-PCR Kit(v3.0) could detect Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Vibrio cholerae, Francisella tularensis, Salmonella typhi, Rickettsia prowazekii, Variola virus, Hantaan virus, Yellow fever virus, Brucella spp., Shigella dysenteriae in a single reaction. The results showed that the kit was verified to be able to detect at least 0.005 ng of nucleotide and 10,000 CFU/ml of bacteria. Therefore, the kit is expected to be used as a rapid and sensitive detection kit for 11 species of biological agents within 2 hours.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.203-214
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• 2003

Scrub typhus and murine typhus are common endemic febrile illness in the fall in Korea. Scrub typhus is caused by Orientia tsutsugomushi, murine typhus is caused by Rickettsia typhi. Trombiculid mites are known as both the vector and the reservoir host of O tsutsugamushi, the mites which transmit O tsutsugomushi have been reported to be Leptotrombidium pallidum and L scutellare. The author carried out an epidemiological study of scrub typhus and murine typhus in Kyodong-Myeon, Kanghwa-Gun, Incheon in relation to the residents and the host rodents, such as their distribution, seroepidemiology, and population density of chigger mites. 1. Out of 900 residents, 33(3.7%) showed positive reaction to O tsutsugamushi, 24(2.7%) to R typhi. 2. In the seropositives to O tsutsugamushi or R typhi, between the sixties and the seventies of the age were dominant. 3. In the seropositives to O tsutsugamushi serotypically Gilliam was dominant. 4. Among the total 42 field rodents trapped by the sherman traps, 18 rodents were Apodemus agrarius(42.9%), 13 rodents were Crocidura lasiura(31.0%), 5 rodents were Musmusculus(11.9%), 2 rodents(4.8%) were Crocidura suaveolens, Rattus norvegicus, Tscherskia triton, respectively. 5. Out of 42 field rodents, 25 were parasitized by 4,419 chigger mites, showing 59.5% of the infestation rate and 98.8 of the chigger index. L pallidum parasitized in A agrarius, C lasiura, M musculus, R norvegicus and T triton, and L scutellare parasitized only C lasiura. 6. Antibodies in the sera of field rodents against O tsutsugamushi and R typhi were investigated by indirect immunofluorescent antibody technique. Positive rate of antibody against O tsutsugamushi were 11.9(5 of 42) and all of the positive is A agrarius. Antibody against R typhi was not detected. These results might provide the basic information for the management of scrub typhus and murine typhus in Kyodong-myeon, where the epidemiological studies on scrub typhus and murine typhus was not carried out enough.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.367-375
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• 2002

Background : Murine typhus is a flea-borne, worldwide Rickettsial disease caused by Rickettsia typhi. Its symptoms are typically mild but sometimes can be fatal. The major clinical features include fever, rash, and headache. Recently, we experienced 6 cases of ARDS associated with a Rickettsia typhi infection. This study was aimed to analyze the attributing factors for fatal murine typhus and to review the characteristics of the patients who showed acute respiratory distress syndrome as the initial presentation. Methods : The medical records of 15 patients diagnosed as murine typhus were reviewed. The diagnosis was made by single titers of 1:512 or higher, or a 4-fold rise with compatible clinical features. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) was defined according to the American-European Consensus Conference. The Characteristics between the ARDS group and the non-ARDS group of murine typhus were compared. Results : Six patients developed ARDS as their initial presentation. Two of them were women and three of them had lived urban area. None of Them a showed skin rash. One of them expired during treatment. The time lapse until the commencement of the specific treatment, the lower serum albumin level, the higher serum total bilirubin level, the higher APACHE III score and the higher MOD score were significantly associated with the ARDS group compared to the non-ARDS group. Conclusion : Murine typhus should be considered as one of the etiologies for the ARDS of unknown cause, particularly in an endemic regions. ARDS caused by Murine typhus generally has a good prognosis.