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Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea

Scrub typhus is caused by the arthropod-borne bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi and is an endemic infectious disease in the Asia-Pacific area. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of scrub typhus and identify associated risk and protective factors among forestry workers, a neglected ris...

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Autores principales: Park, Ji-Hyuk, Gill, Byoungchul, Acharya, Dilaram, Yoo, Seok-Ju, Lee, Kwan, Lee, Jeongmin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003109/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33803616
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063131
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author Park, Ji-Hyuk
Gill, Byoungchul
Acharya, Dilaram
Yoo, Seok-Ju
Lee, Kwan
Lee, Jeongmin
author_facet Park, Ji-Hyuk
Gill, Byoungchul
Acharya, Dilaram
Yoo, Seok-Ju
Lee, Kwan
Lee, Jeongmin
author_sort Park, Ji-Hyuk
collection PubMed
description Scrub typhus is caused by the arthropod-borne bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi and is an endemic infectious disease in the Asia-Pacific area. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of scrub typhus and identify associated risk and protective factors among forestry workers, a neglected risk group for scrub typhus, in National Park Offices in South Korea. A nationwide cross-sectional serosurvey was carried out on 1945 National Park Office forestry workers (NPOFWs) in South Korea during December 2016. We visited 29 main offices and used a structured questionnaire to collect data regarding general characteristics, work activities, work hygiene-related factors, and other potential risk factors. Serum samples from NPOFWs were tested using indirect immunofluorescence assay to detect O. tsutsugamushi immunoglobulin (Ig) G and M antibodies. Of the 1945 NPOFWs, 718 (36.9%) participated in this cross-sectional study. The seroprevalence, defined as ≥1:256 for IgG and/or ≥1:16 for IgM, was 4.9% (35/718). In multivariate logistic analysis, longer duration of work in national parks (≥15 years; odds ratio (OR), 4.19; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.71–10.28) and dry field farming (OR, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.12–5.46) were significantly associated with a higher risk of scrub typhus infection. Furthermore, the risk of scrub typhus infection was significantly lower among NPOFWs who washed working clothes daily (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18–0.75). This study indicated that scrub typhus is an important disease among NPOFWs in South Korea. Work hygiene, especially washing working clothes daily, needs to be emphasized among NPOFWs. Additionally, more precautions are required to diminish the rate of scrub typhus infection among NPOFWs who perform dry field farming.
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spelling pubmed-80031092021-03-28 Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea Park, Ji-Hyuk Gill, Byoungchul Acharya, Dilaram Yoo, Seok-Ju Lee, Kwan Lee, Jeongmin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Scrub typhus is caused by the arthropod-borne bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi and is an endemic infectious disease in the Asia-Pacific area. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of scrub typhus and identify associated risk and protective factors among forestry workers, a neglected risk group for scrub typhus, in National Park Offices in South Korea. A nationwide cross-sectional serosurvey was carried out on 1945 National Park Office forestry workers (NPOFWs) in South Korea during December 2016. We visited 29 main offices and used a structured questionnaire to collect data regarding general characteristics, work activities, work hygiene-related factors, and other potential risk factors. Serum samples from NPOFWs were tested using indirect immunofluorescence assay to detect O. tsutsugamushi immunoglobulin (Ig) G and M antibodies. Of the 1945 NPOFWs, 718 (36.9%) participated in this cross-sectional study. The seroprevalence, defined as ≥1:256 for IgG and/or ≥1:16 for IgM, was 4.9% (35/718). In multivariate logistic analysis, longer duration of work in national parks (≥15 years; odds ratio (OR), 4.19; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.71–10.28) and dry field farming (OR, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.12–5.46) were significantly associated with a higher risk of scrub typhus infection. Furthermore, the risk of scrub typhus infection was significantly lower among NPOFWs who washed working clothes daily (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18–0.75). This study indicated that scrub typhus is an important disease among NPOFWs in South Korea. Work hygiene, especially washing working clothes daily, needs to be emphasized among NPOFWs. Additionally, more precautions are required to diminish the rate of scrub typhus infection among NPOFWs who perform dry field farming. MDPI 2021-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8003109/ /pubmed/33803616 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063131 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Park, Ji-Hyuk
Gill, Byoungchul
Acharya, Dilaram
Yoo, Seok-Ju
Lee, Kwan
Lee, Jeongmin
Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title_full Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title_fullStr Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title_full_unstemmed Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title_short Seroprevalence and Factors Associated with Scrub Typhus Infection among Forestry Workers in National Park Offices in South Korea
title_sort seroprevalence and factors associated with scrub typhus infection among forestry workers in national park offices in south korea
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003109/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33803616
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063131
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