Dengue, Scrub typhus, Encephalitis and Malaria are the major reasons for ICU admissions of tropical fever patients in India, a study revealed on Thursday.

As part of the study 34 ICUs across India and 456 critically ill adults and children were examined, during which it was found that Dengue was the most common reason for the ICU admission. "Remaining patients admitted to ICU were due to Scrub typhus, Encephalitis, Malaria and Bacterial Sepsis as reasons for ICU admissions across India during post-monsoon season from August-October," said the study, published in the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine.

Some of the hospitals include Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SRGH), PGIMER, Chandigargh, Christian Medical College, Vellore among others. One of the biggest motive behind conducting the study was to identify the prevalence, reasons and utilization of ICU resources and outcome of a patient with tropical fevers in Indian ICUs. "Tropical fevers are caused by number of viruses, bacteria and protozoa and often get transmitted by an insect bite. The challenge lies in clinically diagnosing them at the time of presentation as they often present as undifferentiated fever and with overlapping signs and symptoms," said Prakash Shastri Author and Vice Chairman of Critical Care department at SRGH.

Stating that laboratory confirmation may not be available or reliable in first few days for such patients, Sashtri said that regardless, it is important to treat these patients early as delay leads to increased complications and increased hospital stay and expenditure. Commenting on the study, another researcher and part of the multi-centric study said that the outcome data highlights the importance of reaching the diagnosis as those without a specific diagnosis more often required organ supportive therapies and had poor outcome.

"We found that in patients admitted to ICU with acute febrile illness and systemic manifestations, dengue and Scrub typhus to be the most common etiological diagnoses. Case fatality in our study was 18.4 per cent. Tropical fevers also pose a significant burden on ICU health-care resources. Nearly, a fifth of all ICU resources were consumed by these illnesses" said Sunit Singhi, Author and Emeritus Pediatrics at PGIMER, Chandigarh.