Kedani

The recent studies on the kedani disease of Japan are extremely interesting as examples of proteus infection through the wounds inflicted by an insect, a specific mite (kedani) closely allied to the harvest-mite (Leptus autumnalis).

Tanaka (175) was the first to distinguish three kinds of akamushi in 1919, naming them "kedani" and "nezumidani" "a" and "b" on the basis of certain morphological differences. Of their habits he says : "The first kind, or kedani, bites both man and field voles;

The kedani mite (Trombicula akamushi) is the vector of Japanese river fever or tsutsugamushi disease in the northern part of Japan, in Formosa, the Yangtze valley of China, Siam, French Indo-China and Malaya.

These facts, together with the occurrence of a rash, show that the disease possesses many of the features which characterize kedani or tsutsugamushi fever of Japan.

Formerly this disease was called Japanese river fever, kedani disease, or scrub typhus fever. Tsutsugamushi fever is endemic over a wide area of South-East Asia and the south eastern part of the Pacific Ocean;