Houston Chronicle By Todd Ackerman and Nick Powell July 24, 2018
Led by Houston and Galveston, Texas continues to see a rise in typhus cases, a troubling trend for the flea-borne, occasionally fatal disease once thought to have been wiped out in most of the United States.
The Texas health department reports there were 519 cases of typhus in 2017, more than three times the number in 2010. The uptick represents the fourth consecutive year that the number has increased. Harris County recorded 71 of the cases last year, up from 32 cases in 2016. Galveston County has already reported more cases in 2018, 18, than in all of last year.
“It is concerning because typhus can be a serious disease that can require hospitalization,†said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which released the data this week. “It’s possible that recent attention to the issue means health care providers are identifying cases that would have been missed previously, but I don’t think there’s any question that we are seeing a genuine increase in cases.â€
The state health department issued a health alert last December about the rising threat, calling on health care providers to heighten their “clinical suspicion†for typhus symptoms, which include fever, headache, muscle pain, anorexia, rash, nausea and vomiting. Such symptoms are often confused with a number of viral ailments.
The alert underestimated the 2017 count by more than 100, warning only that it would exceed 400.
The disease is often mild and treatable with antibiotics. But left untreated, severe illness can cause damage to one or more organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and brain.
There have been eight deaths in Texas attributed to the bacterial infection since 2003, and more than a quarter of the total cases reported to the state health department involve children ages 6 to 15.
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