The traditional endemic area of scrub typhus is known as the “tsutsugamushi triangle”. It is a region covering more than 8 million km2, from the ...ArticleAuthorsMetricsCommentsMediaCoverageReaderComments(0)FiguresFiguresAbstractScrubtyphusisaseriouspublichealthproblemintheAsia-Pacificarea.Itthreatensonebillionpeopleglobally,andcausesillnessinonemillionpeopleeachyear.CausedbyOrientiatsutsugamushi,scrubtyphuscanresultinseveremultiorganfailurewithacasefatalityrateupto70%withoutappropriatetreatment.TheantigenicheterogeneityofO.tsutsugamushiprecludesgenericimmunityandallowsreinfection.Asaneglecteddisease,thereisstillalargegapinourknowledgeofthedisease,asevidencedbythesporadicepidemiologicdataandotherrelatedpublichealthinformationregardingscrubtyphusinitsendemicareas.Ourobjectiveistoprovideasystematicanalysisofcurrentepidemiology,preventionandcontrolofscrubtyphusinitslong-standingendemicareasandrecentlyrecognizedfociofinfection.AuthorsummaryScrubtyphusisaseriouspublichealthproblemintheAsia-Pacificarea.Thereisanestimatedonemillionnewscrubtyphusinfectionseachyear,andoveronebillionpeoplearoundtheworldareatrisk.Withoutappropriatetreatment,thecasefatalityrateofscrubtyphuscanreach30%orevenhigher.Scrubtyphushaslongbeenaneglectedinfectiousdiseasesomanyaspectsofthedisease,includingitsdiagnosistoprevention,areunknown.Wehereprovideacomprehensivereviewoftheepidemiology,preventionandcontrolofscrubtyphus.Citation:XuG,WalkerDH,JupiterD,MelbyPC,ArcariCM(2017)Areviewoftheglobalepidemiologyofscrubtyphus.PLoSNeglTropDis11(11):e0006062.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006062Editor:NicholasP.Day,MahidolUniversity,THAILANDReceived:June30,2017;Accepted:October21,2017;Published:November3,2017Copyright:©2017Xuetal.ThisisanopenaccessarticledistributedunderthetermsoftheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense,whichpermitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalauthorandsourcearecredited.DataAvailability:AllrelevantdataarewithinthepaperanditsSupportingInformationfil