Typhus: Symptoms, Spread, and Suppression
From the early 16th century until the mid-20th century, Typhus took the lives of more soldiers than all military actions combined. In cities, more died from typhus than from street accidents, crime, starvation or civil unrest. In prisons throughout pre-20th century Europe, typhus extracted a greater death toll than mistreatment, torture and execution combined, which caused the disease to be appropriately named, “Jailhouse Fever.”
Typhus Symptoms and Spread
Typhus victims experience nausea, fever and rash, progressive delirium and stupor, gangrenous sores, severe headaches and a piercing sensitivity to light. The name typhus comes from the ancient Greek word Typhos, meaning smoky or lazy, which describes the state of mind of those afflicted by the disease.
The responsible bacteria, identified today as Rickettsia Prowazekii, is now known to be widespread in rodent hosts, including mice and rats, although it ultimately spreads to humans via mites, fleas, body lice and the North American Flying Squirrel.
American Typhus Epidemics
In North America, typhus epidemics struck Philadelphia in 1837, followed by an outbreak in 1843 in Concord NH which took the life of the son of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States. Similar outbreaks were unleashed in Baltimore, Memphis and Washington DC between the years of 1865 and 1873.
Comparable to present-day Third World shantytowns and refugee camps, the Industrial Revolution further strengthened typhus as a lethal disease. Categorized as a filth disease, Typhus flourished in North American cities before the creation of antibiotics such as tetracycline and an effective array of vaccines, exacerbated by foul housing, overcrowding, overflowing cesspools, poverty, hunger and physical exhaustion.
Suppression of Typhus in North America
Today, Typhus remains virtually wiped out in North America, thanks to the advent of modern sanitation techniques and the eradication of rats and lice. Still prevalent in the Asia/Pacific basin, in developing countries with inadequate sanitary measures, the CDC estimates about one million new Typhus infections annually, with a death rate of 300,000 lives.