A Case of Scrub Typhus-Related Acute Lung Injury Confirmed by Surgical Lung Biopsy

Scrub typhus is an acute febrile and zoonotic disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamush. Although scrub typhus can involve various organs, severe pulmonary complications such as acute lung injury (ALI) have been rare since the introduction of effective antibiotic therapy. In addition, the reports that described the histopathology of lung injury due to scrub typhus were very scarce worldwide and most of them were obtained from autopsy. We report a case of severe lung injury due to scrub typhus whose histopathology was confirmed by surgical lung biopsy in a mechanical ventilator-dependent patient.