The ætiology of the tsutsugamushi disease and tropical typhus in the Federated Malay States

Abstract

A short description of the tsutsugamushi disease is given, followed by a note on the conditions under which it occurs in Sumatra and the Malay States. Abandoned agricultural land which has grown up in weeds is particularly dangerous. Small rodents are the reservoirs of the virus which is carried from them to man by larval mites. Trombicula akamushi is the carrier in Japan, and T. deliensis in Sumatra. The disease has been conveyed to monkeys by inoculation and also by the bites of infected mites.