Scrub typhus is spreading across Nepal. Here’s what you need to know
If you are in an area where scrub typhus is being reported and develop a high fever, particularly with shaking chills, severe headache, body ache, swollen lymph nodes or a painless dark crust from a chigger bite, seek medical care promptly.
If you are in the scrub typhus prone area like Salyan, doctors advise seeking immediate care. People in other areas should also seek testing and treatment if their fever does not improve after three days.
Scrub typhus can be treated with antibiotics, and the medicines are available free of cost at state-run health facilities. Health officials have also supplied testing kits and medicines to affected areas.
More than 9,000 people across Nepal have been infected with scrub typhus since January, according to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. The disease has been reported in 74 of the country’s 77 districts, with 2,718 people infected in the past month alone.
In Salyan’s Darma Rural Municipality, more than 600 people have been infected and eight have died.
“The disease has been spread in all wards of our municipality and over 30 people are testing positive to the disease every day,” said Yagya Bahadur Basnet, health coordinator of the rural municipality. “Along with the infection, a kind of panic has spread in our area and people are rushing to Dang and Nepalgunj when they suffer from fever.”
Last year, more than 10,000 people across the country were infected, while the number stood at 16,597 in fiscal year 2024–25. Officials say the actual number could be higher because not all infections are recorded in government data.
Health officials say the exact number of deaths from scrub typhus is unknown. The infection can cause complications including renal and lung failure, pneumonia and multiple-organ failure, making it difficult to determine whether it was responsible for some deaths.
“One may die of renal failure or lung failure, pneumonia after the infection of scrub typhus,” said Dr Gokarna Dahal, chief of the Vector Control Section at the division. “And people already having underlying conditions have high chances of getting severe and dying. So it is not easy to identify whether the disease is responsible for deaths or not.”
Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus, is a potentially fatal bacterial infection caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected chiggers, or larval mites.
The disease was relatively unknown in Nepal until about a decade ago but has since emerged as a major public health problem.
“This is the peak scrub typhus season and a number of infections are being reported from all provinces and from many districts,” said Dr Anuj Bhattachan, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “We have deployed an expert team comprising an entomologist in the disease-hit Salyan for surveillance and disease control.”
