Controlled Trial: 5-day Course of Telithromycin Versus Doxycycline for the Treatment of Mild to Moderate Scrub Typhus

Inclusion Criteria: We conducted a multicenter prospective study of patients with possible scrub typhus. Adult patients (aged ≥18 years) who have had fever (temperature: ≥37.5°C) together with eschar or a maculopapular skin rash and ≥2 of the following symptoms: headache, malaise, myalgia, coughing, nausea, and abdominal discomfort, were enrolled after obtaining an informed consent from the patients or their guardians (10). Each patient was admitted between September, 2005 to December, 2005 to Chosun University Hospital or one of its two community branch hospitals (Jangheung Hospital and Chumdan Hospital), which are all located in southwest Korea. Exclusion Criteria: * The exclusion criteria were an inability to take oral medications, pregnancy, hypersensitivity to the trial drugs, previous drug therapy with potential antirickettsial activity (e.g., rifampicin, chloramphenicol, macrolides, fluoroquinolones or tetracyclines) within 48 h prior to admission, severe scrub typhus (shock requiring vasopressor therapy for \>1 h, a stuporous or comatose level of consciousness, respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation or renal failure requiring immediate dialysis)