Typhus fever

Typhus fevers are a group of diseases caused by bacteria that are spread to humans by fleas, lice, and chiggers.

Types

Typhus fevers include scrub typhus, murine typhus, and epidemic typhus.

Epidemic typhus

• Epidemic typhus is also called louse-borne typhus.
• It is an uncommon disease caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia prowazekii.
• Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact with infected body lice.
• Though epidemic typhus was responsible for millions of deaths in previous centuries, it is now considered a rare disease.
• Occasionally, cases continue to occur, in areas where extreme overcrowding is common and body lice can travel from one person to another.  
• In the United States, rare cases of epidemic typhus, called sylvatic typhus, can occur. These cases occur when people are exposed to flying squirrels and their nests

Typhus rash on the face and neck of a woman in the Fever Hospital, Abbassia, Egypt

Scrub typhus

• Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus, is a disease caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi.
• Scrub typhus is spread to people through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites).
• The most common symptoms of scrub typhus include fever, headache, body aches, and sometimes rash.
• Most cases of scrub typhus occur in rural areas of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, and northern Australia.
• Anyone living in or traveling to areas where scrub typhus is found could get infected.

Typhoid fever and typhus fever

Flea-borne (murine) typhus

• Flea-borne (murine) typhus, is a disease caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia typhi.
• Flea-borne typhus is spread to people through contact with infected fleas.
• Fleas become infected when they bite infected animals, such as rats, cats, or opossums.
• When an infected flea bites a person or animal, the bite breaks the skin, causing a wound.
• Fleas poop when they feed.
• The poop (also called flea dirt) can then be rubbed into the bite wound or other wounds causing infection.
• People can also breathe in infected flea dirt or rub it into their eyes.
• This bacteria is not spread from person to person.
• Flea-borne typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical climates around the world including areas of the United States (southern California, Hawaii, and Texas).
• Flea-borne typhus is a rare disease in the United States.

Typhus fever - with particular reference to the Serbian epidemic

Transmission

Chiggers spread scrub typhus, fleas spread murine typhus, and body lice spread epidemic typhus.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms are fever, headaches, and sometimes rash.

Also see

• Epidemic typhus
• Murine typhus
• Scrub typhus

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