Cases of flea-borne typhus have steadily risen in LA over the past decade. Three people died from the bacterial infection last year, as well.
Friday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , a journal maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In it, scientists with the CDC, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and the California Department of Public Health have detailed the growing rise of typhus in Los Angeles.
In 2010, there were 31 reported cases of flea-borne typhus in LA County. By 2022, that number had jumped to 171 cases. That same year, three deaths linked to the infection were reported in LA as well, which wereFlea-borne typhus usually isn’t life-threatening, but it can. All three victims had other health conditions that might have increased the risk of severe illness.
As for why typhus has become more common as of late, the authors bring up several theories. The Oriental rat flea is the usual vector of typhus, but in suburban areas, the bacteria might now be hitching a ride more often with the cat flea , which can infest a wide range of animals, including opossums
, stray cats, and domestic pets. Rat populations in and around these hotspots might be growing as well, increasing the risk of transmission.authors say that more research is needed to understand these trends and to find ways to stem the tide of typhus in the U.S. “Monitoring rodent, opossum, free-roaming cat, and dog flea infestations and the numbers of infected fleas is needed to understand disease ecology and more efficiently direct interventions to prevent disease in humans,” they wrote.
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