Kathmandu, June 27 -- Patients with high fever and severe body aches, headache, abdominal pain, and joint and muscle pain are common in the outpatient department of Patan Hospital-and some of them have of late been testing positive for scrub typhus.

"Patients infected with scrub typhus visit the outpatient department of our hospital regularly for treatment," said Dr Samita Panta Acharya, medical director at the Patan Hospital. "The number of scrub typhus infections have risen over the years."

Scrub typhus, or bush typhus, is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by the parasite Orientia tsutsugamushi, a mite-borne bacterium. It spreads to humans when bitten by infected chiggers (larval mites) found in mice.

Along with Patan Hos...