A 44-year-old male non-resident worker (NRW) from the mainland who is employed as a landscape gardener has been infected with Tsutsugamushi Disease (aka scrub typhus), according to a statement by the Health Bureau (SSM) on Friday, which noted that this is the second suspected case of the disease reported in Macau this year.
The statement said that the patient, who has been in charge of weeding the area behind a villa in Long Chao Kok in Coloane since mid-May, sought treatment at the private Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) on May 26 after being covered with a rash, adding that the patient developed symptoms of fever and general muscle pain on Thursday.
The patient was hospitalised at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre on Friday, when a peanut-sized eschar was found in his right groin, according to the statement, which noted that the symptoms improved “significantly” after treatment.
The statement said that the patient, who lives in Zhongshan, was working on wasteland in Macau, but never walked through grassland at home, adding that neither his family nor colleagues developed similar symptoms as his.
Scrub typhus infectees may develop symptoms of fever, headache, muscle pain, and skin rash, with the disease being characterised by the formation of a painless eschar – a collection of dead tissue within the wound that is flush with the skin surface – caused by the bite of a chigger, a tiny mite that lives outdoors in grassy or wooded areas near water, the statement underlined, which added that a minority of patients may come down with serious complications of pneumonia, encephalitis, myocarditis, respiratory failure, shock, and even death, with a mortality rate of up to 60 percent.
Although there is no vaccine to prevent the disease, antibiotics can “effectively” treat it, the statement noted.
The bureau urged the public to use footpaths as much as possible when engaging in outdoor activities in grasslands, while also wearing long-sleeved clothing and putting on insect repellent. Having a shower and changing one’s clothing is recommended for all those who have been in an area where they could have been infected with the disease.
The statement underlined that those who come down with fever should seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
Both weeding and rodent control should be carried out on a regular basis to reduce the habitat and density of chiggers, as well as to avoid rodents’ nests, the statement stressed, which noted that rodents living in high-temperature, humid and weedy wasteland areas are the most common reservoir of Rickettsia Tsutsugamushi.
This photo taken in 2011 shows an eschar on a patient’s popliteal (behind the knee) area. – Photo courtesy of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
