Simaly PhongmanyJean Marc RolainRattanaphone PhetsouvanhStuart D. BlacksellVimone SoukkhaseumBouachanh RasachackKhamphong PhiasakhaSurn SoukkhaseumKhamthavi FrichithavongVang ChuValy KeolouangkhotBertrand Martinez-AusselKo ChangChirapha DarasavathOudayvone RattanavongSiho SisouphoneMayfong MayxaySisouphane VidamalyPhilippe ParolaChanpheng ThammavongMayboun HeuangvongsyBounkong SyhavongDidier RaoultNicholas J. WhitePaul N. NewtonMahosot HospitalUniversite de la Mediterranee Aix-Marseille IIUniversity of OxfordMahidol UniversityNational University of LaosFrancophone Institute of Tropical Medicine2018-08-202018-08-202006-01-01Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol.12, No.2 (2006), 256-26210806059108060402-s2.0-33644551558https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/23872Rickettsial diseases have not been described previously from Laos, but in a prospective study, acute rickettsial infection was identified as the cause of fever in 115 (27%) of 427 adults with negative blood cultures admitted to Mahosot Hospital in Vientiane, Laos. The organisms identified by serologic analysis were Orientia tsutsugamushi (14.8%), Rickettsia typhi (9.6%), and spotted fever group rickettsia (2.6% [8 R. helvetica, 1 R. felis, 1 R. conorii subsp. indica, and 1 Rickettsia "AT1"]). Patients with murine typhus had a lower frequency of peripheral lymphadenopathy than those with scrub typhus (3% vs. 46%, p<0.001). Rickettsioses are an underrecognized cause of undifferentiated febrile illnesses among adults in Laos. This finding has implications for the local empiric treatment of fever.Mahidol UniversityMedicineArticleSCOPUS10.3201/eid1202.050900