Typhus is a disease that is caused by rickettsia or orientia bacteria, infected mites, fleas, or lice. People have become more aware of personal hygiene thus making the cases of typhus drop significantly. But it still occurs in places where people are deprived of basic sanitation. It may also get passed by an infected animal.
According to US NIH, there are three main kinds of typhus, each caused by different bacteria.
Murine typhus is passed by fleas to people. If the fleas bite infected animals, especially rats, and then bite a healthy person.
Epidemic typhus is a rare type of typhus that is spread by infected body lice.
Scrub typhus is spread by infected chiggers, or mites, mainly found in rural parts.
Let's have a look at the symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment for Typhus.
Typhus: Symptoms
Any kind of Typhus will make a person feel ill for about 10 days to 2 weeks after the typhus bacteria get into your body. The symptoms include (Healthline)
Chills
Fever
Headache
Muscle aches
Rashes
Coughing
Loss of appetite
Nausea
Stomach pain
Vomiting
Confusion
Fast breathing
Swollen lymph nodes
Typhus: Causes
According to Mayo Clinic, typhus is spread by insects and other parasites when they bite a person and leave bacteria-laden feces on their skin.
When a person scratches the itching caused due to bug bite, it can spread the infected feces into the open bite wound or other cuts on the skin’s surface moving the typhus bacteria into your bloodstream.
You can get scrub typhus if a mite infected with the bacterium bites you, even if you don’t scratch the bite.
Typhus: Diagnosis & Treatment
In case a doctor wants to confirm if a person has typhus or not, he will get a blood test to check for typhus bacteria.
It can take weeks to get those blood test results thus doctors may start antibiotic treatment to be safe. The most effective therapy for all three kinds of typhus is the antibiotic doxycycline.
A single dose of doxycycline is effective against epidemic typhus. Doxycycline also works on other strains of the disease.
The patient must start taking the medicines immediately after he has a few symptoms
In case of allergy to doxycycline, doctors may choose another antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro).
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