Typhus | |
---|---|
Other names | Typhus fever |
Rash caused by epidemic typhus | |
Specialty | Infectious disease |
Symptoms | Fever, headache, rash [1] |
Complications | Meningoencephalitis |
Usual onset | 1–2 weeks after exposure [2] |
Causes | Bacterial infection spread by parasites [1] |
Risk factors | Poor sanitation |
Prevention | Avoiding exposure to organisms known to carry the disease |
Treatment | Doxycycline [2] |
Frequency | Rare [3] |
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. [1] Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. [1] Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. [2]
The diseases are caused by specific types of bacterial infection. [1] Epidemic typhus is caused by Rickettsia prowazekii spread by body lice, scrub typhus is caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi spread by chiggers, and murine typhus is caused by Rickettsia typhi spread by fleas. [1]
Vaccines have been developed, but none are commercially available. [3] [4] [5] Prevention is achieved by reducing exposure to the organisms that spread the disease. [3] [4] [5] Treatment is with the antibiotic doxycycline. [2] Epidemic typhus generally occurs in outbreaks when poor sanitary conditions and crowding are present. [6] While once common, it is now rare. [3] Scrub typhus occurs in Southeast Asia, Japan, and northern Australia. [4] Murine typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. [5]
Typhus has been described since at least 1528. [7] The name comes from the Greek tûphos ( τῦφος ), meaning 'hazy' or 'smoky' and commonly used as a word for delusion, describing the state of mind of those infected. [7] While typhoid means 'typhus-like', typhus and typhoid fever are distinct diseases caused by different types of bacteria, the latter by specific strains of Salmonella typhi. [8] However, in some languages such as German, the term typhus does mean 'typhoid fever', and the here-described typhus is called by another name, such as the language's equivalent of 'lice fever'.
These signs and symptoms refer to epidemic typhus, as it is the most important of the typhus group of diseases. [9]
Signs and symptoms begin with sudden onset of fever and other flu-like symptoms about one to two weeks after being infected. [10] Five to nine days after the symptoms have started, a rash typically begins on the trunk and spreads to the extremities. This rash eventually spreads over most of the body, sparing the face, palms, and soles. Signs of meningoencephalitis begin with the rash and continue into the second or third weeks.[ citation needed ] Other signs of meningoencephalitis include sensitivity to light (photophobia), altered mental status (delirium), or coma. Untreated cases are often fatal. [11]
Signs and symptoms of scrub typhus usually start within 1 to 2 weeks after being infected. These symptoms include fever, headaches, chills, swollen lymph nodes, nausea/vomiting, and a rash at the site of infection called an eschar. More severe symptoms may damage the lungs, brain, kidney, meninges, and heart. [12]
Multiple diseases include the word "typhus" in their descriptions. [13] Types include:
Condition | Bacterium | Reservoir/vector | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Epidemic louse-borne typhus | Rickettsia prowazekii | Body louse | When the term "typhus" is used without qualification, this is usually the condition described. Historical references to "typhus" are now generally considered to be this condition.[ citation needed ] |
Murine typhus or "endemic typhus" | Rickettsia typhi | Fleas on rats | |
Scrub typhus | Orientia tsutsugamushi | Harvest mites on humans or rodents | |
Spotted fever | Rickettsia spotted fever group | Ticks | Includes Boutonneuse fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Queensland tick typhus and other variants. |
The main method of diagnosing typhus of all types is laboratory testing. It is most commonly done with an indirect immunofluorescence antibody IFA test for all types of typhus. This tests a sample for the antibodies associated with typhus. It can also be done with either immunohistochemistry (IHC) or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests excluding scrub typhus. Scrub typhus is not tested with IHC or PCR but is instead tested with the IFA test as well as indirect immunuoperoxidase (IIP) assays. [14]
As of 2024, no vaccine is commercially available. [3] [4] [5] A vaccine has been in development for scrub typhus known as the scrub typhus vaccine. [15]
Scrub typhus is caused by mites, so avoid the outdoors when scrub is common in the area. Make sure your clothing is treated with permethrin to prevent mite bites. Lastly, make sure to use bug spray to keep mites away as well. For children and babies, you additionally have to make sure their clothing covers their limbs. For babies put a mosquito cover over their stroller which also protects them from mites. [16]
Epidemic typhus is caused by body lice and thrives in areas with overcrowding. To avoid lice you should stay away from highly populated areas. Also, make sure to regularly clean yourself and your clothing to help kill lice. This also goes for things like bedding and towels. Make sure to not share any fabric items with anyone who has lice or typhus. Lastly, treat clothing with permethrin because it helps kill lice. [3]
Murine typhus is caused by flea bites so take steps to avoid fleas. This can be done by making sure pets do not have fleas and if they do, treat them, stay away from wild animals, use insect repellent to keep fleas away, and wear gloves when dealing with sick or dead animals. Take steps to ensure rodents or other wildlife do not get into your home. [17]
The American Public Health Association recommends treatment based upon clinical findings and before culturing confirms the diagnosis. [18] Without treatment, death may occur in 10% to 60% of people with epidemic typhus, with people over age 50 having the highest risk of death. [19] In the antibiotic era, death is uncommon if doxycycline is given. In one study of 60 people hospitalized with epidemic typhus, no one died when given doxycycline or chloramphenicol. [20]
According to the World Health Organization, in 2010 the death rate from typhus was about one of every 5,000,000 people per year. [21]
Only a few areas of epidemic typhus exist today. Since the late 20th century, cases have been reported in Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Algeria, and a few areas in South and Central America. [22] [23] [24] [25]
Except for two cases, all instances of epidemic typhus in the United States have occurred east of the Mississippi River. An examination of a cluster of cases in Pennsylvania concluded the source of the infection was flying squirrels. [26] Sylvatic cycle (diseases transmitted from wild animals) epidemic typhus remains uncommon in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have documented only 47 cases from 1976 to 2010. [27] An outbreak of flea-borne murine typhus was identified in downtown Los Angeles, California, in October 2018. [28]
The first reliable description of typhus appears in 1489 AD during the Spanish siege of Baza against the Moors during the War of Granada (1482–1492). These accounts include descriptions of fever; red spots over arms, back, and chest; attention deficit, progressing to delirium; and gangrenous sores and the associated smell of rotting flesh. During the siege, the Spaniards lost 3,000 men to enemy action, but an additional 17,000 died of typhus. [29]
In historical times,[ when? ] "jail fever" or "gaol fever" was common in English prisons, and is believed by modern authorities to have been typhus. It often occurred when prisoners were crowded together into dark, filthy rooms where lice spread easily. Thus, "imprisonment until the next term of court" was often equivalent to a death sentence. Prisoners brought before the court sometimes infected members of the court. [30] The Black Assize of Exeter 1586 was another notable outbreak. During the Lent assizes court held at Taunton in 1730, gaol fever caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when persons were executed for capital offenses, more prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In 1759, an English authority estimated that each year, a quarter of the prisoners had died from gaol fever. [30] In London, gaol fever frequently broke out among the ill-kept prisoners of Newgate Prison and then moved into the general city population. In May 1750, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Samuel Pennant, and many court personnel were fatally infected in the courtroom of the Old Bailey, which adjoined Newgate Prison. [31]
Epidemics occurred routinely throughout Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including during the English Civil War, the Thirty Years' War, and the Napoleonic Wars. [32] Pestilence of several kinds raged among combatants and civilians in Germany and surrounding lands from 1618 to 1648. According to Joseph Patrick Byrne, "By war's end, typhus may have killed more than 10 percent of the total German population, and disease in general accounted for 90 percent of Europe's casualties." [33]
During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812, more French soldiers died of typhus than were killed by the Russians. [34]
A major epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816 and 1819, during the famine caused by a worldwide reduction in temperature known as the Year Without a Summer. An estimated 100,000 people perished. Typhus appeared again in the late 1830s, and yet another major typhus epidemic occurred during the Great Irish Famine between 1846 and 1849. The typhus outbreak along with typhoid fever is said to be responsible for 400,000 deaths. [35] The Irish typhus spread to England, where it was sometimes called "Irish fever" and was noted for its virulence. It killed people of all social classes, as lice were endemic and inescapable, but it hit particularly hard in the lower or "unwashed" social strata. [36]
In the United States, a typhus epidemic broke out in Philadelphia in 1837 and killed the son of Franklin Pierce (14th President of the United States) in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1843. Several epidemics occurred in Baltimore, Memphis, and Washington, DC, between 1865 and 1873. Typhus was also a significant killer during the US Civil War, although typhoid fever was the more prevalent cause of US Civil War "camp fever". Typhoid fever is caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi. [37]
In Canada alone, the typhus epidemic of 1847 killed more than 20,000 people from 1847 to 1848, mainly Irish immigrants in fever sheds and other forms of quarantine, who had contracted the disease aboard the crowded coffin ships in fleeing the Great Irish Famine. Officials neither knew how to provide sufficient sanitation under conditions of the time nor understood how the disease spread. [38]
Typhus was endemic in Poland and several neighboring countries prior to World War I (1914–1918), but became epidemic during the war. [39] [40] [41] Delousing stations were established for troops on the Western Front during World War I, but typhus ravaged the armies of the Eastern Front, where over 150,000 died in Serbia alone. [42] Fatalities were generally between 10% and 40% of those infected and the disease was a major cause of death for those nursing the sick.[ citation needed ]
In 1922, the typhus epidemic reached its peak in Soviet territory, with some 20 to 30 million cases in Russia. [43] Although typhus had ravaged Poland with some 4 million cases reported, efforts to stem the spread of disease in that country had largely succeeded by 1921 through the efforts of public health pioneers such as Hélène Sparrow and Rudolf Weigl. [44] In Russia during the civil war between the White and Red Armies, epidemic typhus killed 2–3 million people, many of whom were civilians. [41] [43] [45] [46] In 1937 and 1938, there was a typhus epidemic in Chile. [47] On 6 March 1939, Prime Minister of France Édouard Daladier stated to the French parliament, he would return 300,000 of the Spanish refugees fleeing from the 1938 Spanish Civil War; reasons included the typhus spread in the French refugee camps, as well as France's sovereign recognition of Francisco Franco. [48]
During World War II, many German POWs after the loss at Stalingrad died of typhus. Typhus epidemics killed those confined to POW camps, ghettos, and Nazi concentration camps who were held in unhygienic conditions. Pictures of mass graves including people who died from typhus can be seen in footage shot at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. [49] Among thousands of prisoners in concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen who died of typhus [49] were Anne Frank, age 15, and her sister Margot, age 19, in the latter camp.
The first typhus vaccine was developed by the Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl in the interwar period; the vaccine did not prevent the disease but reduced its mortality. [50]
Beginning in 2018, a typhus outbreak spread through Los Angeles County primarily affecting homeless people. [51] In 2019, city attorney Elizabeth Greenwood revealed that she, too, was infected with typhus as a result of a flea bite[ dubious – discuss ] at her office in Los Angeles City Hall. [52] [53] Pasadena also experienced a sudden uptick in typhus with 22 cases in 2018 but, without being able to attribute this to one location, the Pasadena Public Health Department did not identify the cases as an "outbreak". [54] Over the past decade as well murine typhus cases have been rising with the highest number of cases being 171 in 2022. [55]
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Symptoms include fever, weakness and headache. Usually this begins one to seven days after exposure. There are three forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms. Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain; bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, making them swell; and septicemic plague infects the blood and can cause tissues to turn black and die.
Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever, is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus. Many of those infected by the virus do not develop symptoms. When symptoms occur they typically include fever, weakness, headaches, vomiting, and muscle pains. Less commonly there may be bleeding from the mouth or gastrointestinal tract. The risk of death once infected is about one percent and frequently occurs within two weeks of the onset of symptoms. Of those who survive, about a quarter have hearing loss, which improves within three months in about half of these cases.
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi bacteria, also called Salmonella typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several days. This is commonly accompanied by weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, and mild vomiting. Some people develop a skin rash with rose colored spots. In severe cases, people may experience confusion. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Diarrhea may be severe, but is uncommon. Other people may carry it without being affected, but are still contagious. Typhoid fever is a type of enteric fever, along with paratyphoid fever. Salmonella enterica Typhi is believed to infect and replicate only within humans.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. It is frequently asymptomatic; if symptoms appear they typically begin 3 to 14 days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin itching and skin rash. Recovery generally takes two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into severe dengue with bleeding, low levels of blood platelets, blood plasma leakage, and dangerously low blood pressure.
Epidemic typhus, also known as louse-borne typhus, is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters where civil life is disrupted. Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact with infected body lice, in contrast to endemic typhus which is usually transmitted by fleas.
Marburg virus disease (MVD), formerly Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF) is a viral hemorrhagic fever in human and non-human primates caused by either of the two Marburgviruses: Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVV). Its clinical symptoms are very similar to those of Ebola virus disease (EVD).
Shigellosis is an infection of the intestines caused by Shigella bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass stools even when the bowels are empty. The diarrhea may be bloody. Symptoms typically last five to seven days and it may take several months before bowel habits return entirely to normal. Complications can include reactive arthritis, sepsis, seizures, and hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. Symptoms may include fever, skin ulcers, and enlarged lymph nodes. Occasionally, a form that results in pneumonia or a throat infection may occur.
An asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become infected with a pathogen, but shows no signs or symptoms.
Charles Jules Henri Nicolle was a French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus.
Murine typhus, also known as endemic typhus or flea-borne typhus, is a form of typhus transmitted by fleas, usually on rats, in contrast to epidemic typhus which is usually transmitted by lice. Murine typhus is an under-recognized entity, as it is often confused with viral illnesses. Most people who are infected do not realize that they have been bitten by fleas. Historically the term "hunger-typhus" was used in accounts by British POWs in Germany at the end of World War I when they described conditions in Germany.
Paratyphoid fever, also known simply as paratyphoid, is a bacterial infection caused by one of three types of Salmonella enterica. Symptoms usually begin 6–30 days after exposure and are the same as those of typhoid fever. Often, a gradual onset of a high fever occurs over several days. Weakness, loss of appetite, and headaches also commonly occur. Some people develop a skin rash with rose-colored spots. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Other people may carry the bacteria without being affected; however, they are still able to spread the disease to others. Typhoid and paratyphoid are of similar severity. Paratyphoid and typhoid fever are types of enteric fever.
Globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital, and people across political and geographic boundaries, allows infectious diseases to rapidly spread around the world, while also allowing the alleviation of factors such as hunger and poverty, which are key determinants of global health. The spread of diseases across wide geographic scales has increased through history. Early diseases that spread from Asia to Europe were bubonic plague, influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.
Rickettsia typhi is a small, aerobic, obligate intracellular, rod shaped gram negative bacterium. It belongs to the typhus group of the Rickettsia genus, along with R. prowazekii. R. typhi has an uncertain history, as it may have long gone shadowed by epidemic typhus. This bacterium is recognized as a biocontainment level 2/3 organism. R. typhi is a flea-borne disease that is best known to be the causative agent for the disease murine typhus, which is an endemic typhus in humans that is distributed worldwide. As with all rickettsial organisms, R. typhi is a zoonotic agent that causes the disease murine typhus, displaying non-specific mild symptoms of fevers, headaches, pains and rashes. There are two cycles of R. typhi transmission from animal reservoirs containing R. typhi to humans: a classic rat-flea-rat cycle that is most well studied and common, and a secondary periodomestic cycle that could involve cats, dogs, opossums, sheep, and their fleas.
Pediculosis corporis or Vagabond's disease is a cutaneous condition caused by body lice that lay their eggs on clothing and to a lesser extent on human hairs.
Zika virus is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae. It is spread by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947. Zika virus shares a genus with the dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile viruses. Since the 1950s, it has been known to occur within a narrow equatorial belt from Africa to Asia. From 2007 to 2016, the virus spread eastward, across the Pacific Ocean to the Americas, leading to the 2015–2016 Zika virus epidemic.
Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infection. The first symptoms are usually fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headaches. These are usually followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and decreased liver and kidney function, at which point some people begin to bleed both internally and externally. It kills between 25% and 90% of those infected – about 50% on average. Death is often due to shock from fluid loss, and typically occurs between six and 16 days after the first symptoms appear. Early treatment of symptoms increases the survival rate considerably compared to late start. An Ebola vaccine was approved by the US FDA in December 2019.
Hélène Sparrow, was a Polish medical doctor and bacteriologist. She is best known for her work on the control of many epidemics including: typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and smallpox. Throughout the 1920s, Sparrow worked with the Polish Armed Forces at the State Institute of Hygiene in Warsaw. While at the State Institute of Hygiene, she worked vigilantly to produce the first vaccine against typhus and ran several large-scale vaccination campaigns to control the spread of diphtheria and scarlet fever all along the eastern frontiers of Poland. In 1933, Sparrow began to study flea-borne and louse-borne rickettsia diseases in Tunis, where she became the head of her own department at the Pasteur Institute. In her later years, she expanded her studies to include Mexico and Guatemala. While in Mexico and Guatemala, Sparrow developed a protective vaccine against typhus. She contributed a great amount of research to the World Health Organization on relapsing fever specifically in Ethiopia.
Diseases and epidemics of the 19th century included long-standing epidemic threats such as smallpox, typhus, yellow fever, and scarlet fever. In addition, cholera emerged as an epidemic threat and spread worldwide in six pandemics in the nineteenth century.