Hepatic dysfunction among scrub typhus Indian patients with acute undifferentiated febrile illness

Scrub typhus is a febrile illness caused by through trombiculid mite, bite <i>Orientia tsutsugamushi</i>. It is often unrecognized due to its vague symptoms. It is prevalent in the Rewa region of Madhya Pradesh, India. Therefore, it is of interest to assess hepatic dysfunction and to establish the association between liver function test parameters and disease severity in confirmed Scrub typhus cases. Hence, 50 IgM ELISA positive cases from July to September 2024 at Shyam Shah Medical College, Rewa were studied. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS 25 software, with Spearman's correlation used to relate severity, liver function test parameters and fever duration. The average fever duration was 6.22 days, with 80% of patients showing serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and 70% showing serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase abnormalities. Thus, there was a correlation between disease severity and liver dysfunction, with moderate injury in 62% and severe injury in 38% of patients.