In autumn 1960, a small epidemic of scrub typhus occurred among the infantrymen of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Forces at the Fuji School located at the foothill of the Mt. Fuji.
The cases were diagnosed as scrub typhus not only clinically but also serologically. In the serological test, most of the cases proved positive both in Weil-Felix reaction (OXK) and complement fixation test, but some were positive either, and a -few were neither.
Any inapparent or subclinical type of infection was not observed through this epidemic in testing serums from the healthy infantrymen with the notified experience of mite attack at the epidemic season, as well as from the recruite who spent the epidemic season of 1960 in this school.
As a control measure for scrub typhus, a large scale dusting of BHC on the infective maneuvering ground was carried out for eradication of the infective mite from the ground. The effect of BHC on mite control on the ground was found significant, and the epidemic seemed to subside apparently by this field dusting of BHC.
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