Lai et al[55] comparing 18 patients with delayed
defervescence against 88 patients with fast recovery, cite
absence of headache, relative bradycardia and jaundice as
predictors of delayed defervescence. However, this study
analyzed patients with scrub typhus, murine typhus and
Q fever together and only 7patients with scrub typhus
had delayed defervescence. It is not clear whether these
predictors differed for individual infections. In addition,
delayed fever can be attributed to many other factors such
as resistant strains and the choice of antibiotics (all these
patients were treated with doxycycline). These findings have
not been confirmed by other investigators.