As many as 265 people have been found infected with scrub typhus in Chitwan in the last three months. According to the District Public Health Office, Chitwan, the number of people infected with the infectious mite-borne disease that is caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi has been on the rise in the district. 

Similarly, the number of dengue patients in the same period has reached 18. In the past three months, 1,076 people underwent tests for scrub typhus while 644 persons were tested for dengue, said Ram Kumar KC, said an official at the DPHO. 

Fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, muscular rash and body pain are among the symptoms of scrub typhus. 

Orientia tsutsugamushi is transmitted by a mite that feeds on forest and rural rodents including rats, voles and field mice. Dengue is caused by the bite of an Aedes aegypti mosquito infected with dengue virus.