Typhus in TEOTWAWKI

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.


There are three kinds of typhus:

• scrub typhus, which occurs only in the Asia-Pacific region, and thus will not be addressed here;
• murine typhus, which is flea-borne, usually from fleas found on rats; and
• epidemic typhus, which is transmitted primarily by body lice.

Murine or Endemic Typhus
This form of typhus occurs worldwide, but mainly in tropical and subtropical areas where rats and their fleas are present.  It is actually transmitted by the feces of the fleas usually found on rats, in areas with poor sanitation and lots of rats.  But murine typhus can also come from fleas on mice, cats, opossums, and rarely, dogs.  People contract it when they inhale the flea feces, or more commonly through scratched or abraded/compromised skin.  Most cases occur spring to early fall, and in the US, are usually found in Texas, California, and Hawaii.  This includes the October 2018 outbreak in Los Angeles. 

Epidemic or Louse-Borne Typhus
As the body louse is the carrier of the bacteria that causes typhus, it is the same conditions that are favorable for acquiring body lice that favor the transmission of typhus--crowded, unsanitary conditions such as occur with war, famine, refugee camps, prisons, and with the homeless.  Transmission occurs when people come in contact with the feces of the body lice or crush the body lice, through cuts or injured skin, or inhalation, the same as with murine typhus.  As the bacteria remain viable for up to one hundred days and body lice proliferate rapidly, this disease can quickly reach epidemic proportions.  Consider these few gems from history:

• In a siege of the Moors during the War of Grenada, the Spanish lost 3000 men in battle, and 17,000 to typhus. 
• Typhus is estimated to have killed more than 10% of Germans during the Thirty Years' War.
• In 1812, during Napoleon's retreat from Russia, more of his men died from typhus than from battle with the Russians.
• During a famine that occurred between 1816 and 1819 in Ireland, including a period known as The Year Without a Summer, more than 100,000 Irish died of typhus.
• During World War I, more than 150,000 died of typhus in Yugoslavia alone.

Typhus is first mentioned in historical records in the 1400s, and almost all historical references to typhus are considered to be epidemic typhus.  Today, in the United States, almost all cases of epidemic typhus occur east of the Mississippi.

Signs, symptoms, and diagnosis
The symptoms of both kinds of typhus are very similar, but as epidemic typhus is the disease we really need to be concerned with, that's where the focus is for diagnosis.

One to two weeks after being infected, the illness begins with the sudden onset of a high fever.  Other flu-like symptoms, especially rapid breathing and headache, follow.  Five to nine days after the initial onset, a rash begins, usually on the trunk, and then spreading to the limbs, but sparing (and this is key in diagnosis) the face, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet.  Other symptoms in the second and third weeks include sensitivity to light in the eyes and an altered mental state.

Even today, with advanced medicine, diagnostic tests take time and if an individual is suspected of having typhus, treatment begins immediately while awaiting tests results to confirm the diagnosis.  And the treatment is the same, whether it is murine typhus or epidemic typhus:  doxycycline.  The dosage recommended for adults is 100 mg twice per day, until at least three days after the fever subsides, usually 7-10 days in all.  For children under 100 pounds, the dosage is 2.2 mg/kg twice per day.

Unlike every other communicable disease I have researched, there is no alternative or herbal treatment for typhus.  In all the books I checked--Armageddon Medicine, Herbal Antibiotics, The Herbal Medic, The Barefoot Doctor's Manual, The Survival Medicine Handbook, Herbal Antivirals (yeah, I know typhus is a bacterial disease, but I figured, why not check anyway), and Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition--half of the books had no mention of typhus at all, and only the last one covered how to treat it.   Well, actually, The Barefoot Doctor's Manual did have a slight mention as well.  (For those who aren't familiar, this book is the official Chinese paramedical manual.  And it covers a lot of herbal treatments.  So there is one mention in there of one herb to treat typhus.  It is the bark of the root peony, Tan P'i, whatever that is.  Further internet research did not shed any light, and so I'm guessing it's something that doesn't grow here.) 

Without treatment--doxycycline--most patients die.  For what it's worth, in wartime outbreaks, many of the typhus fatalities were actually among those nursing the ill and wounded.  You can try asking your physician for a prescription for doxycycline to have on hand, just in case, but doctors are increasingly reluctant to do this.  Your best bet is going to be getting it from an overseas pharmacy or a company that sells fish antibiotics.

Prevention
Beyond strict hygiene and sanitary conditions, permethrin is going to be your best friend here.  Permethrin kills lice (and bed bugs, ticks, scabies, and mosquitoes) and does so for a long time, so it is ideal for applying to items that cannot easily be washed, like mattresses.  It also is often applied to clothing and will remain effective through numerous washings.  Do not apply permethrin to the skin.  Any washable items suspected of harboring body lice must be washed in water that is at least 140 degrees to kill lice.  Items that cannot be washed should be encapsulated in plastic bags for at least five weeks.  Burning is also a good idea, if that is an option.  

Links to related posts:
Acquiring Antibiotics
Lice
Bed Bugs
Ticks
Scabies


For more information:
https://www.cdc.gov/typhus/healthcare-providers/index.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/typhus
https://www.medicinenet.com/typhus/article.htm
http://www.bestonlinemd.com/typhus-symptoms-signs-and-pictures/