| Epidemic typhus fever, as the name implies, has the potential to cause serious disease in large numbers
of people under certain conditions that contribute to heavy infestations of body lice. Indeed, historical
accounts such as
Rats, Lice, and History (see references below) have chronicled the impact of epidemic typhus fever,
especially in association with war and natural disasters when outbreaks of body lice occur among people
in refugee camps. Today, outbreaks of epidemic typhus are limited, but the disease has the potential
to re-emerge. Examples include in Burundi (Africa) refugee camps in 1997-1998, when about half a million
people were afflicted, and in China in 1999, when more than 5,600 people were afflicted following an
earthquake. |
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Rickettsia prowazeckii has been isolated from southern flying squirrels,
Glaucomys volans, an apparent reservoir host. The flying squirrels were removed from attics
of houses in which human cases of epidemic typhus fever occurred. Very few cases have been
reported, however, all from the eastern and southeastern U.S. Details of transmission are not
fully known, but available evidence suggests that human infections resulted from inhaling infected
feces of a louse that is a host-specific parasite of the southern flying squirrel. This louse
and the human body lice were not involved in transmission to humans.
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- A bacterium, specifically a
rickettsia with the scientific name
Rickettsia prowazekii.
- It is an intracellular parasite that invade cells lining the walls of small blood vessels.
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- Formerly in temperate regions, but now limited primarily to high elevations in the subtropics and tropics.
- NOTE: Potential exists for transmission in the U.S. among homeless infested with body lice.
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- Fever, malaise, head and muscle ache, cough, and general weakness.
- Blotchy rash that spreads from the abdomen to chest to rest of body, but rarely to hands and feet.
- Severe disease includes prostration, delirium, very low blood pressure, and coma.
- NOTE: The death rate can be very high during epidemics.
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- Humans who survive infection and harbor rickettsiae in their lymph nodes for months to many years.
- NOTE: A re-occurring human infection,
Brill-Zinsser disease, is the source of rickettsiae to body lice.
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- The
human body louse
Pediculus humanus.
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- Via feces of infected body lice being scratched into the skin by an infested human.
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- Symptoms together with an infestation of body lice.
- Laboratory tests that detect antibodies to
Rickettsia rickettsii in a patient's blood.
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- An antibiotic prescribed by a physician.
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- There is no vaccine available in the U.S.
- NOTE: A vaccine used in Africa is ineffective and has caused adverse side effects in some people.
- Avoid human body louse infestations.
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