Tsutsugamushi patient 8x increase in 3 weeks..."Watch out for ticks".

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the number of patients with tsutsugamushi, who are infected by hair mites, has increased significantly recently, and asked them to be careful when doing outdoor activities.

Last week, 459 new cases of tsutsugamushi were reported, an eight-fold increase from 58 cases two weeks ago.The density of hair mites, a medium of

disease, also increased more than three times.

Tsutsugamushi, a third-class infectious disease, is infected by being bitten by larvae of hairy mites with bacteria, and symptoms such as fever, chills, and rash appear.

Health officials said the mortality rate from tsutsugamushi infection was as low as 0.2%, but the intensity of symptoms was high, stressing that they should be careful not to get tick bites when operating in grassy areas.