Direct diagnosis of scrub typhus by full-length 16S ribosomal RNA gene analysis using Oxford Nanopore sequencing

Abstract

Scrub typhus (caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi) is a neglected and underdiagnosed disease due to its non-specific clinical presentation and challenging diagnostics. We document the first study of direct diagnosis of scrub typhus from the blood sample of a patient by full-length 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon analysis using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

Keywords

• 16S rRNA
• Eschar
• India
• ONT
• Orientia tsutsugamushi
• Scrub typhus