Journal article
History of scrub typhus in Indonesia
- Abstract:
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Scrub typhus is a common but underrecognized cause of fever in the Asia-Pacific region. This review is the first to examine the history of scrub typhus in the context of notable historical events in Indonesia. Scrub typhus was first observed in 1902 and has since been documented through colonial and modern times. However, the available evidence is sparse. This lack of data is influenced by wider factors, including geopolitical climate and socio-economic factors. During the colonial era and World War II, research focused on economic and military interests. There were research gaps during the unstable period following independence in 1945. More research commenced only in the 1970s, mainly under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. Since 2000, there have been sporadic attempts to study scrub typhus on several major islands (Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo, Bali). We found 51 relevant articles documenting the presence of the pathogen and its vectors, with only a single case confirmed with standard laboratory testing. This lack of data, combined with low awareness and diagnostic capacity, makes it difficult for policymakers to appreciate the impact of scrub typhus. Indonesia needs sustainable and continuous surveillance systems, infrastructure and research funding to ensure diseases of public health importance are not neglected.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.1MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/trstmh/traf017
Authors
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/029chgv08
- Grant:
- 220211/Z/20/Z
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene More from this journal
- Volume:
- 119
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 338-345
- Publication date:
- 2025-02-26
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-02-11
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1878-3503
- ISSN:
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0035-9203
- Pmid:
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40036232
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2096786
- Local pid:
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pubs:2096786
- Deposit date:
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2025-04-04
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Saraswati et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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