As many 17 new cases of scrub typhus infection have been reported in Chitwan in a week, pushing the number of patients in the district to 162 in the last four months. According to the District Public Health Office, Chitwan, a total of 17 people were found to have infected with the bacterial disease in the examination of 70 patients. The District Public Health Officer Madhusudan Koirala informed that blood tests showed that 162 out of 400 persons have contracted the disease since April. Five persons have been reported dead due to the infection since April, said Koirala. A team of Epidemiology and Diseases Control Division has arrived Chitwan district for further research on scrub typhus.