nearly doubled<\/a> over the last three years. The Public Health Department logged a record 220 cases in 2025, and officials say this year is on track to exceed that.<\/p>\nPublic health officials say the increase is likely because human-animal interactions are also increasing. That could be due to human population expansions into areas with more animals, available food sources for wildlife in populated areas or more people owning pets.<\/p>\n
The bacteria that causes typhus is transmitted from animals to humans through fleas.<\/p>\n
Typhus can\u2019t be passed from one human to another, and public health experts say the illness is completely treatable, especially if it\u2019s caught early.<\/p>\n
Outbreaks and how to prevent them<\/p>\n
Most of the time, typhus cases are spread out across L.A. County. But sometimes, there\u2019s a localized spread over a short period of time that turns into an outbreak.<\/p>\n
Public health officials respond to a few of them in L.A. County each year.<\/p>\n
Generally, outbreaks are triggered by high concentrations of host animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever these animals may be present or wherever they may be congregating, in those areas we can see an increase in the number of human infections,\u201d said Dr. Aiman Halai with the L.A. County Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n
The most common hosts for typhus are rats, opossums and free-roaming cats. When people or pets come in contact with host animals, they can pick up the infected fleas and bring them into homes, spreading them to other people and animals in the process.<\/p>\n
Halai says a variety of factors can attract animals and lead to an outbreak, including overflowing dumpsters, overgrown vegetation or a well-meaning neighbor feeding local critters.<\/p>\n
You can help prevent outbreaks by securing trash in bins, making sure food isn\u2019t left outside, and ensuring pets are on up-to-date flea control medication. Cutting back overgrown vegetation and blocking off crawl spaces can eliminate places where animals can shelter in and around homes.<\/p>\n
Halai also says it\u2019s important not to feed wildlife.<\/p>\n
Should you be worried?<\/p>\n
Although public health experts are wary of the typhus uptick in L.A. County, the 220 cases recorded in 2025 in L.A. County are not overly concerning.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s a very \u200alow rate at the population level,\u201d said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at USC\u2019s Keck School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
Typhus is an acute infection caused by bacteria known as Rickettsia typhi. Variations of the bacteria also cause other illnesses transmitted by fleas, ticks, lice and mites, including tick-borne Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.<\/p>\n
Doctors can test for typhus fairly easily, and it is treatable with antibiotics. Symptoms are similar to the flu, and can include fever, headaches, muscle aches and nausea. It can also cause rashes in some cases.<\/p>\n
Most infections are mild, but they can cause hospitalization and, in rare cases, can be fatal.<\/p>\n
Klausner said the concern is that testing for typhus is not always routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is that when patients come in to their doctor \u2014 and they have fever, they may have a rash, they may have headache, may have muscle or joint aches \u2014 that the doctor’s thinking about potentially flea-borne infectious diseases because the treatment can be different,\u201d Klausner said.<\/p>\n
The best treatment for typhus is the antibiotic doxycycline. If a patient with typhus gets another type of antibiotic like penicillin or amoxicillin, the treatment may not be as successful.<\/p>\n
According to Klausner, when presented with flu-like symptoms, it\u2019s also a good idea for patients to tell their doctors if they\u2019ve been around animals, spent time in an encampment or even just gone on a hike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public health officials are urging people to be wary of flea-borne typhus after a recent outbreak of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-821301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}