Typhus reaches 'epidemic levels' in parts of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – Health officials on Friday announced a typhus epidemic in Los Angeles County and claimed that she had reached the "epidemic level" in the city of Pasadena.

Twenty cases have been reported in Pasadena, most in the past two months, Health Officials told NBC News, noting that a normal year in this country would usually be infected by only five. To date, the city of Long Beach, California, has 12 cases in 2018, double the normal annual number, said Emily Holman, the city's coordinator of infectious disease control.

The number of cases in the rest of the county since July is nine, which is an "epidemic," officials said Los Angeles County Public Health Department in a statement. Pasadena and Long Beach have their own health services, even if they exist in the county.

"The Pasadena Public Health Department has reported epidemic levels of epidemic typhus this year," a statement from the city said Friday.

The official source of the outbreak would be fleas of domestic and wild animals.

"The infection occurs when the feces from infected fleas are rubbed on cuts or scratches on the skin or on the eyes," says the County Health Department on its website.

Some experts, however, say the real culprit is the inhumane conditions in which the county's growing homeless population lives.

"All cases have lived or worked in downtown Los Angeles," a county health spokeswoman said by email.

Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission, which has nearly 1,400 beds for people fleeing or avoiding downtown Dickensian streets, said: "The conditions on Skid Row are met for even more serious problems."

In 2014, Bales was amputated from one leg after being exposed to a flesh-eating bacteria in downtown.

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office said that it was about the case.

"We are deploying all available resources to help control and stop this epidemic," Mayor Alex Comisar said in an e-mail. "The city and county have set up a dedicated working group through our unified homelessness center to ensure the safety of Angelenos and guarantee everyone the treatment they need. they need as quickly as possible. "

Typhus or typhus fever is an infectious disease transmitted by fleas that can cause high fever, headache, chills, body aches, rashes and, in rare cases, meningitis and death.

Health officials in Pasadena attribute the outbreak to a hot summer and autumn and human interactions with animals in neighborhoods close to the "wildlife" canyons and the National Forest of Angeles. They say that the disease has nothing to do with homelessness in their high-income city.

Los Angeles County Public Health Department spokeswoman said in an e-mail that officials were investigating the source of typhus in downtown Los Angeles by specifically looking for "high concentrations of fleas and / or infected rats, feral cats and possums ".

Bales noted: "There are a lot of rats on Skid Row, and there are a lot of dogs that belong to homeless people."

In September, an economic roundtable published by a non-profit research organization, Economic Roundtable, concluded that there were 102,955 homeless people in the county, almost double what government officials had previously reported.

"The numbers on the sidewalk have increased dramatically," said Alice Callaghan, founder of Skid Row's service organization, Las Familias del Pueblo. "They are like refugee camps."