Cargando…
Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019
Scrub typhus is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. In this study, the epidemiological characteristics of scrub typhus in Taiwan, including gender, age, seasonal variation, climate factors, and epidemic trends from 2010 to 2019 were investigated. Information about scru...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701143/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946346 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121619 |
_version_ | 1784620928837091328 |
---|---|
author | Lin, Fu-Huang Chou, Yu-Ching Chien, Wu-Chien Chung, Chi-Hsiang Hsieh, Chi-Jeng Yu, Chia-Peng |
author_facet | Lin, Fu-Huang Chou, Yu-Ching Chien, Wu-Chien Chung, Chi-Hsiang Hsieh, Chi-Jeng Yu, Chia-Peng |
author_sort | Lin, Fu-Huang |
collection | PubMed |
description | Scrub typhus is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. In this study, the epidemiological characteristics of scrub typhus in Taiwan, including gender, age, seasonal variation, climate factors, and epidemic trends from 2010 to 2019 were investigated. Information about scrub typhus in Taiwan was extracted from annual summary data made publicly available on the internet by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. From 2010 to 2019, there were 4352 confirmed domestic and 22 imported cases of scrub typhus. The incidence of scrub typhus ranged from 1.39 to 2.30 per 100,000 from 2010–2019, and peaked in 2013 and 2015–2016. Disease incidence varied between genders, age groups, season, and residence (all p < 0.001) from 2010 to 2019. Risk factors were being male (odds ratio (OR) =1.358), age 40 to 64 (OR = 1.25), summer (OR = 1.96) or fall (OR = 1.82), and being in the Penghu islands (OR = 1.74) or eastern Taiwan (OR = 1.92). The occurrence of the disease varied with gender, age, and place of residence comparing four seasons (all p < 0.001). Weather, average temperature (°C) and rainfall were significantly correlated with confirmed cases. The number of confirmed cases increased by 3.279 for every 1 °C (p = 0.005) temperature rise, and 0.051 for every 1 mm rise in rainfall (p = 0.005). In addition, the total number of scrub typhus cases in different geographical regions of Taiwan was significantly different according to gender, age and season (all p < 0.001). In particular, Matsu islands residents aged 20–39 years (OR = 2.617) and residents of the Taipei area (OR = 3.408), northern Taiwan (OR = 2.268) and eastern Taiwan (OR = 2.027) were affected during the winter. Males and females in the 50–59 age group were at high risk. The total number of imported cases was highest among men, aged 20–39, during the summer months, and in Taipei or central Taiwan. The long-term trend of local cases of scrub typhus was predicted using the polynomial regression model, which predicted the month of most cases in a high-risk season according to the seasonal index (1.19 in June by the summer seasonal index, and 1.26 in October by the fall seasonal index). The information in this study will be useful for policy-makers and clinical experts for direct prevention and control of chigger mites with O. tsutsugamushi that cause severe illness and are an economic burden to the Taiwan medical system. These data can inform future surveillance and research efforts in Taiwan. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8701143 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87011432021-12-24 Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 Lin, Fu-Huang Chou, Yu-Ching Chien, Wu-Chien Chung, Chi-Hsiang Hsieh, Chi-Jeng Yu, Chia-Peng Healthcare (Basel) Article Scrub typhus is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. In this study, the epidemiological characteristics of scrub typhus in Taiwan, including gender, age, seasonal variation, climate factors, and epidemic trends from 2010 to 2019 were investigated. Information about scrub typhus in Taiwan was extracted from annual summary data made publicly available on the internet by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. From 2010 to 2019, there were 4352 confirmed domestic and 22 imported cases of scrub typhus. The incidence of scrub typhus ranged from 1.39 to 2.30 per 100,000 from 2010–2019, and peaked in 2013 and 2015–2016. Disease incidence varied between genders, age groups, season, and residence (all p < 0.001) from 2010 to 2019. Risk factors were being male (odds ratio (OR) =1.358), age 40 to 64 (OR = 1.25), summer (OR = 1.96) or fall (OR = 1.82), and being in the Penghu islands (OR = 1.74) or eastern Taiwan (OR = 1.92). The occurrence of the disease varied with gender, age, and place of residence comparing four seasons (all p < 0.001). Weather, average temperature (°C) and rainfall were significantly correlated with confirmed cases. The number of confirmed cases increased by 3.279 for every 1 °C (p = 0.005) temperature rise, and 0.051 for every 1 mm rise in rainfall (p = 0.005). In addition, the total number of scrub typhus cases in different geographical regions of Taiwan was significantly different according to gender, age and season (all p < 0.001). In particular, Matsu islands residents aged 20–39 years (OR = 2.617) and residents of the Taipei area (OR = 3.408), northern Taiwan (OR = 2.268) and eastern Taiwan (OR = 2.027) were affected during the winter. Males and females in the 50–59 age group were at high risk. The total number of imported cases was highest among men, aged 20–39, during the summer months, and in Taipei or central Taiwan. The long-term trend of local cases of scrub typhus was predicted using the polynomial regression model, which predicted the month of most cases in a high-risk season according to the seasonal index (1.19 in June by the summer seasonal index, and 1.26 in October by the fall seasonal index). The information in this study will be useful for policy-makers and clinical experts for direct prevention and control of chigger mites with O. tsutsugamushi that cause severe illness and are an economic burden to the Taiwan medical system. These data can inform future surveillance and research efforts in Taiwan. MDPI 2021-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8701143/ /pubmed/34946346 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121619 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lin, Fu-Huang Chou, Yu-Ching Chien, Wu-Chien Chung, Chi-Hsiang Hsieh, Chi-Jeng Yu, Chia-Peng Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title | Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title_full | Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title_fullStr | Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title_full_unstemmed | Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title_short | Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Notifiable Scrub Typhus in Taiwan during the Period 2010–2019 |
title_sort | epidemiology and risk factors for notifiable scrub typhus in taiwan during the period 2010–2019 |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701143/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946346 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121619 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT linfuhuang epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 AT chouyuching epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 AT chienwuchien epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 AT chungchihsiang epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 AT hsiehchijeng epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 AT yuchiapeng epidemiologyandriskfactorsfornotifiablescrubtyphusintaiwanduringtheperiod20102019 |