A ten years experience on diagnosis of rickettsial diseases using the indirect immunoperoxidase methods.

An accurate diagnosis of Tsutsugamushi disease (TD) can be made within a few hours after receiving serum specimens by detecting the specific IgG and IgM antibodies in the patient's serum. Using the indirect immunoperoxidase test we found a total of 730 cases of TD in 32 out of 47 prefectures when serum samples from 2,224 cases of suspected disease or fever of unknown origin or from patients with febrile exanthema of unknown cause were examined during a 10 years period (from May 1980 till December 1989). In addition, 27 cases of spotted fever group rickettsial infection were confirmed and one case of African spotted fever group infection was also detected in 1988. Furthermore, possibly the first case of TD was found in People's Republic of Congo (Africa) in 1989.