Flea-Borne Typhus Spreads Across Los Angeles Area – Protect Yourself

As of Monday, there have been 57 cases of flea-borne typhus in Los Angeles County, even though typhus naturally appears throughout LA County, we are detecting various cases in the metropolitan Los Angeles area, We motivate pet owners to process safe flea control and inspire all cities in the county to assure preservation of their trash clean-up and rodent control activities” said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer.

Murine typhus, also called common typhus or flea-borne typhus, is a bug affected by germs called Rickettsia typhi. Typhus in not directly contagious, infected lice excrete rickettsia onto the skin while feeding on a second host, who becomes infected by rubbing louse faecal matter or crushed lice into the bite wound. Murine typhus reaches to people through contact with contaminated fleas. People get ill with murine typhus when diseased flea feces are chafed into cuts or scrapes in the skin. Murine or endemic flea-borne typhus is caused by R. typhi which can be transmitted by rat fleas. The bacteria can be found in the parasite (flea, louse) and in their feces which is often deposited near a bite wound

Death arises in 10 to 60 percent of patients with epidemic typhus without medication, with patients over age 60 having the highest risk of death. It may be found among people in close contact with rats. It isn’t frequently begun in the United States, but cases have been reported in some areas, especially Texas and southern California. Typhus vaccines are vaccines advanced to protect against typhus. As of 2017 they are not commercially available. One typhus vaccine consists of formaldehyde-inactivated Rickettsia prowazekii. Two doses are injected subcutaneously four weeks apart. In the antibiotic era, death is uncommon if doxycycline is given. Typhus can be found worldwide.

Indicators of epidemic typhus usually arise abruptly and include relentless headache, high illness above 102.2°F, irritation that commences on the back or chest and spreads, confusion, stupor and seeming out of touch with reality, low blood constrain, hypotension eye sensitivity to bright lights, severe muscle pain. There is no vaccine to prevent murine typhus. Reduce your risk of getting murine typhus by avoiding contact with infected fleas. Keep lice and animals away from your home, workplace, and recreational areas.

Typhus fever is a disease that can cause serious complications requiring lengthy hospitalization, and rarely, death,” said Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, Pasadena’s health officer

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