Tsutsugamushi Disease in Pregnant Woman: a Case of Successful Treatment with Azithromycin.

Kim, Young Ok; Kim, Young Soo; Yoon, Sun Ae; Lee, Soo Sun; Park, Tae Chul; Lee, Jin Woo

Case Report

Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2003;46(12):2556-2559.
Published online December 1, 2003.

Tsutsugamushi Disease in Pregnant Woman: a Case of Successful Treatment with Azithromycin.

Young Ok Kim, Young Soo Kim, Sun Ae Yoon, Soo Sun Lee, Tae Chul Park, Jin Woo Lee

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Tsutsugamushi disease is a acute infectious disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. Therapy with doxycycline or chloramphenicol is currently recommended for the treatment of this disease. However, these drugs, which are pregnancy category D, should not be used to treat pregnant woman. Recently, azithromycin, which is pregnancy category B, has been reported to be effective in treatment of tsutsugamushi disease. Moreover, there is no evidence that azithromycin causes harmful effects to the fetus. Here we report a case of tsutsugamushi disease in a 30 year old woman at pregnant 21 weeks of gestation who was successfully treated with azithromycin. She completely recovered with the treatment of azithromycin and delivered healthy baby at 40 weeks of gestation.

Key Words: Tsutsugamushi disease, Pregnancy, Azithromycin