Context:
A 75-year-old man from Kerala who recently travelled to Vietnam and Cambodia was diagnosed with the bacterial disease murine typhus.
Relevance:
Facts for Prelims
Murine Typhus Overview:
- Murine typhus is an infectious disease caused by the flea-borne bacterium, Rickettsia typhi.
- Transmission:
- It is a common occurrence that infected fleas bite a human thus causing transmission.
- Other causes of this condition include endemic typhus as well as flea-borne spotted fever.
- Common rats, house mice, and simply mongooses are known hosts for this illness.
- The fleas infesting the disease-causing rodents may also infest other small mammals including household pets like cats and dogs. Once an infected flea bites a host, the infested flea can transmit R typhii for the rest of its lifespan.
- For instance, mucous membranes may also become infected with rickettsiae through contacting infected flea excreta.
- When contaminated excreta are introduced into any skin cuts, the disease is transmitted.
- Murine typhus is not contagious between persons nor does it pass from man to fleas.
- Afflicted countries report that the disease mostly occurs in coastal and insular tropics and subtropics where there are many rats.
- In the country of India, there are some incidences of murine typhus in the northeastern region, Madhya Pradesh as well as in Kashmir region.
Symptoms
- Symptoms typically develop within seven to 14 days post-exposure, and include a fever, headaches, aches in the body, pains in the joints, nausea and vomiting, and stomach pains.
- Later on, some may develop epidermal lesions.
Treatment
- There is no vaccine currently available against the disease.
- Doxycycline is usually offered for treatment, but the word treatment implies that the diagnosis is made early.
-Source: The Hindu
