Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Mimicking Scrub Typhus: Three Case Reports

Song, Sung Wook; Yoo, Seung Jin; Yoo, Jeong Rae; Lee, Keun Hwa; Kim, Jae-Wang; Heo, Sang Taek

J Korean Soc Emerg Med > Volume 26(4); 2015 > Article

Case Report

Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine 2015;26(4): 326-330.

Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Mimicking Scrub Typhus: Three Case Reports

Sung Wook Song¹, Seung Jin Yoo², Jeong Rae Yoo², Keun Hwa Lee³, Jae-Wang Kim⁴, Sang Taek Heo²

¹Department of Emergency Medicine, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea
²Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea
³Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea
⁴Department of Dermatology, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea

Correspondence

Sang Taek Heo ,Tel: 064) 754- 8151, Fax: 064) 717-1131, Email: neosangtaek@naver.com,

Received: March 13, 2015; Revised: March 17, 2015 Accepted: June 8, 2015. Published online: August 31, 2015.

ABSTRACT

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease in South Korea with clinical features similar to those of scrub typhus. Infected patients with these two diseases usually visited the emergency department (ED) complaining of fever that was not responsive to treatment in a local clinic. Aggressive management of SFTS is required in order to prevent rapid progression and human-to-human transmission, thus rapid and accurate differential diagnosis of the two diseases in the ED is important. We reported three laboratory confirmed cases of SFTS during 2013-2014 in a single center, with fever, skin lesions, and history of outdoor activities in order to help in differential diagnosis between SFTS and scrub typhus in the ED.

Key words: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, Scrub typhus, Fever