Murine typhus

Other names| Endemic typhus
Chest Xray of a 40 yr old male in acute respiratory distress syndrome as a complication of murine typhus
Specialty| Infectious disease

Murine typhus, also known as endemic typhus or flea-borne typhus, is a form of typhus transmitted by fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis), usually on rats, in contrast to epidemic typhus which is usually transmitted by lice.[1][2][3] 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.[citation needed]

## Contents

* 1 Signs and symptoms
* 2 Causes
* 3 Diagnosis
* 4 Treatment
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of endemic typhus include headache, fever, muscle pain, joint pain, nausea and vomiting. 40–50% of patients will develop a discrete rash six days after the onset of signs. Up to 45% will develop neurological signs such as confusion, stupor, seizures or imbalance.

Symptoms may resemble those of measles, rubella, or possibly Rocky Mountain spotted fever. These symptoms are likely caused by a vasculitis caused by the rickettsia.

## Causes

It is caused by the bacterium Rickettsia typhi, and is transmitted by the fleas that infest rats. While rat fleas are the most common vectors, cat fleas and mouse fleas are less common modes of transmission. These fleas are not affected by the infection. Human infection occurs because of flea-fecal contamination of the bites on human skin. Rats, cats, and opossums maintain the rickettsia colonization by providing it with a host for its entire life cycle. Rats can develop the infection, and help spread the infection to other fleas that bite them, and help multiply the number of infected fleas that can then infect humans.

Less often, endemic typhus is caused by Rickettsia felis and transmitted by fleas carried by cats or opossums.

In the United States of America, murine typhus is found most commonly in southern California,[4] Texas and Hawaii. In some studies, up to 13% of children were found to have serological evidence of infection.[5]

## Diagnosis

As of 2014[update], early diagnosis continued to be based on clinical suspicion, and treatment of the disease is indicated even before laboratory results confirm its presence. Because of the lag between the onset of infection and the appearance of antibodies in a blood test, serologic tests are merely confirmatory and retrospective. Weil-Felix agglutination reactions are not sensitive to the disease. Indirect fluorescence antibody assays that are specific to R. typhi antigens are the recommended route for detection and diagnosis: diagnostic titers are present in half of all cases within the first week of infection and in nearly all cases by day-15. The sharing of antigens by rickettsiae means routine serologic evaluation will not distinguish between murine typhus and epidemic typhus. Bacterial cultures are rarely performed because although they are highly accurate for diagnosis, the biohazard risk of generating them is often considered too high.[6]

## Treatment

The disease can be fatal if left untreated, but endemic typhus is highly treatable with antibiotics. Most people recover fully, but death may occur in the elderly, severely disabled or patients with a depressed immune system. The most effective antibiotics include tetracycline and chloramphenicol. In the United States, the CDC recommends solely doxycycline.[7]

## See also

* List of mites associated with cutaneous reactions

## References

1. ↑ Li, Li; Li, Guiying (2015), Li, Hongjun, ed., "Epidemic and Endemic Typhus" (in en), Radiology of Infectious Diseases: Volume 2 (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands): pp. 89–94, doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9876-1_8, ISBN 978-94-017-9876-1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9876-1_8, retrieved 2021-02-27
2. ↑ "Flea-borne (murine) typhus" (in en-us). 2020-11-13. https://www.cdc.gov/typhus/murine/index.html.
3. ↑ "Epidemic typhus" (in en-us). 2020-11-13. https://www.cdc.gov/typhus/epidemic/index.html.
4. ↑ "Murine (endemic) Typhus". California Department of Public Health. http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Documents/MurineTyphus.pdf.
5. ↑ The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (Impact Factor: 3.57). 07/2000; 19(6):535−8.
6. ↑ John E. Bennett; Raphael Dolin; Martin J. Blaser (2014-09-02). Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 2223. ISBN 978-0-323-26373-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=73pYBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2223.
7. ↑ "Murine Typhus". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 7 March 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/typhus/murine/index.html.

## External links

Classification|

* ICD-10: A75.2
* ICD-9-CM: 081.0
* MeSH: D014437
* DiseasesDB: 32211

|

External resources|

* Orphanet: 83315

* v
* t
* e

* Infectious diseases
* Bacterial disease: ProteobacterialG−]]
* primarily A00–A79, 001–041, 080–109

| Rickettsiales|

| Rickettsiaceae/
(Rickettsioses)|

| Typhus|

* Rickettsia typhi
* Murine typhus
* Rickettsia prowazekii
* Epidemic typhus, Brill–Zinsser disease, Flying squirrel typhus

|

Spotted
fever|

| Tick-borne|

* Rickettsia rickettsii
* Rocky Mountain spotted fever
* Rickettsia conorii
* Boutonneuse fever
* Rickettsia japonica
* Japanese spotted fever
* Rickettsia sibirica
* North Asian tick typhus
* Rickettsia australis
* Queensland tick typhus
* Rickettsia honei
* Flinders Island spotted fever
* Rickettsia africae
* African tick bite fever
* Rickettsia parkeri
* American tick bite fever
* Rickettsia aeschlimannii
* Rickettsia aeschlimannii infection

|

Mite-borne|

* Rickettsia akari
* Rickettsialpox
* Orientia tsutsugamushi
* Scrub typhus

Flea-borne|

* Rickettsia felis
* Flea-borne spotted fever

Anaplasmataceae|

* Ehrlichiosis: Anaplasma phagocytophilum
* Human granulocytic anaplasmosis, Anaplasmosis
* Ehrlichia chaffeensis
* Human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis
* Ehrlichia ewingii
* Ehrlichiosis ewingii infection

Rhizobiales|

| Brucellaceae|

* Brucella abortus
* Brucellosis

|

Bartonellaceae|

* Bartonellosis: Bartonella henselae
* Cat-scratch disease
* Bartonella quintana
* Trench fever
* Either B. henselae or B. quintana
* Bacillary angiomatosis
* Bartonella bacilliformis
* Carrion's disease, Verruga peruana

| Neisseriales|

| M+|

* Neisseria meningitidis/meningococcus
* Meningococcal disease, Waterhouse–Friderichsen syndrome]], Meningococcal septicaemia

|

M−|

* Neisseria gonorrhoeae/gonococcus
* Gonorrhea

ungrouped:|

* Eikenella corrodens/Kingella kingae
* HACEK
* Chromobacterium violaceum
* Chromobacteriosis infection

Burkholderiales|

* Burkholderia pseudomallei
* Melioidosis
* Burkholderia mallei
* Glanders
* Burkholderia cepacia complex
* Bordetella pertussis/Bordetella parapertussis
* Pertussis

| Enterobacteriales
(OX−)|

| Lac+|

* Klebsiella pneumoniae
* Rhinoscleroma, Pneumonia
* Klebsiella granulomatis
* Granuloma inguinale
* Klebsiella oxytoca

* Escherichia coli: Enterotoxigenic
* Enteroinvasive
* Enterohemorrhagic
* O157:H7
* O104:H4
* Hemolytic-uremic syndrome

* Enterobacter aerogenes/Enterobacter cloacae

|

Slow/weak|

* Serratia marcescens
* Serratia infection
* Citrobacter koseri/Citrobacter freundii

Lac−|

| H2S+|

* Salmonella enterica
* Typhoid fever, Paratyphoid fever, Salmonellosis

|

H2S−|

* Shigella dysenteriae/sonnei/flexneri]]/boydii
* Shigellosis, Bacillary dysentery
* Proteus mirabilis/Proteus vulgaris
* Yersinia pestis
* Plague/Bubonic plague
* Yersinia enterocolitica
* Yersiniosis
* Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
* Far East scarlet-like fever

Pasteurellales|

| Haemophilus:|

* H. influenzae
* Haemophilus meningitis
* Brazilian purpuric fever
* H. ducreyi
* Chancroid
* H. parainfluenzae
* HACEK

|

Pasteurella multocida|

* Pasteurellosis
* Actinobacillus
* Actinobacillosis

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans|

* HACEK

Legionellales|

* Legionella pneumophila/Legionella longbeachae
* Legionnaires' disease
* Coxiella burnetii
* Q fever

Thiotrichales|

* Francisella tularensis
* Tularemia

Vibrionaceae|

* Vibrio cholerae
* Cholera
* Vibrio vulnificus
* Vibrio parahaemolyticus
* Vibrio alginolyticus
* Plesiomonas shigelloides

Pseudomonadales|

* Pseudomonas aeruginosa
* Pseudomonas infection
* Moraxella catarrhalis
* Acinetobacter baumannii

Xanthomonadaceae|

* Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Cardiobacteriaceae|

* Cardiobacterium hominis
* HACEK

Aeromonadales|

* Aeromonas hydrophila/Aeromonas veronii
* Aeromonas infection

| Campylobacterales|

* Campylobacter jejuni
* Campylobacteriosis, Guillain–Barré syndrome]]
* Helicobacter pylori
* Peptic ulcer, MALT lymphoma, Gastric cancer
* Helicobacter cinaedi
* Helicobacter cellulitis

|

* v
* t
* e

Flea-borne diseases

Bacterial infection
(all G-)|

* Murine typhus
* Lyme disease
* Rocky Mountain spotted fever
* Ehrlichiosis
* Relapsing fever
* Tularemia

Viral infection|

* Tick-borne meningoencephalitis
* Colorado tick fever
* Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
* Myxomatosis

Protozoan infection|

* Babesiosis
* Cytauxzoonosis

Helminth|

* Hymenolepiasis tapeworm

Vectors|

|

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murine typhus. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Medicine:Murine_typhus&oldid=1016493"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template