Typhus Arrives in Los Angeles

To be honest, I have no idea what to make of this information. Matt Drudge considered it important enough to highlight on his site, so it must be very important.

The news is: downtown Los Angeles has been hit with an outbreak of flea-borne typhus. As it happens, the disease is treatable.

We do not know what it means to say that the illness has arrived in downtown Los Angeles. Might it be the case that this is where homeless encampments have taken over the streets? The story gives us a hint when it describes the locale as "skid row."

Without further ado, here is the story, from CBS Los Angeles:

An outbreak of flea-borne typhus has hit downtown Los Angeles, the county Department of Public Health said Thursday.

Health officials say they are investigating several cases of flea-borne typhus, a disease that infected fleas can spread to humans. While the fleas can come from cats, rats, and opossums, pets and animals do not get sick from typhus.

In people, however, typhus can cause high fever, chills, headache, and rash. It is not transmitted from person to person and can be treated with antibiotics.

“Although typhus normally occurs throughout L.A. County, we are observing several cases in the downtown Los Angeles area,” Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis said in a statement. “We encourage pet owners to practice safe flea control and encourage all cities in the county to ensure maintenance of their trash clean-up and rodent control activities.”

Typhus can spread in areas where there is an accumulation of trash that attracts wild animals like feral cats, rats and opossums.