Question

I am writing a paper on the dealiest epidemics in recorded history. I am looking for information on typhus epidemic/camp fever. I need help identifying when these diseases started, what started them, the virus or mutation that caused them, how they spread and the preventative measures to stop them.

Answer 1

Epidemic typhus is called camp fever cause it preceeded wars and natural disasters where people where camped together . Henrique de Rocha Rima in the year 1961 proved that the causative agent is Rickettsia prowazekii, a gram-negative bacterium, and transmitted by the human body louse (in their feces). The disease was first decribed in 1083 in Italy. It was not until 1546, Girolamo Fracastoro described the disease. The epidemic was known to have started in the second year of the the Peloponnesian war (431-404 BC). It then spread to Europe.It is also called jail fever because of the lice that readily spreading in unhgienic and crowded conditions. The disease is acused by the louse who feeds on a human that carries the bacterium-Rickettsia prowazekii . The bacterium grows in the gut of the louse and is excreted into the feces. An uninfected individual when scrates a louse bit thereby rubbing the feces into the wound gets infected after an incubation period of one to two weeks. Even though the bacterium kills the louse it remains virulent in its feces for many days. The symptoms of this disease include high fever, cough, rash, pain, sensitivity to light, delirium and death. The vaccine for Eidemic typhus was developed in 1938 by Herald Cox. This vaccine was used for the prevention. Antibiotics such as chlroamphenicol, tetracycline and doxycycline are taken for the treatment of this diesease.