In February 2006, a diagnosis of sylvatic epidemic typhus in a counselor at a wilderness camp in Pennsylvania prompted a retrospective investigation. From January 2004 through January 2006, 3 more cases were identified. All had been counselors at the camp and had experienced febrile illness with myalgia, chills, and sweats; 2 had been hospitalized. All patients had slept in the same cabin and reported having seen and heard flying squirrels inside the wall adjacent to their bed. Serum from each patient had evidence of infection with Rickettsia prowazekii. Analysis of blood and tissue from 14 southern flying squirrels trapped in the woodlands around the cabin indicated that 71% were infected with R. prowazekii. Education and control measures to exclude flying squirrels from housing are essential to reduce the likelihood of sylvatic epidemic typhus.
Sylvatic epidemic typhus, hereafter referred to as sylvatic typhus, is a rare but potentially lethal zoonotic exanthematous disease caused by Rickettsia prowazekii. It is associated with a cycle of infection involving flying squirrels and their ectoparasites and secondary transmission to humans. Illness in humans is characterized by fever, myalgia, severe headache, and rash. Historically, classic louse-borne epidemic typhus, caused by the same organism, has caused large epidemics where conditions were favorable for person-to-person spread of body lice.
Chapman, A. S., Swerdlow, D. L., Dato, V. M., Anderson, A. D., Moodie, C. E., Marriott, C….Dasch, G. A. (2009). Cluster of Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Cases Associated with Flying Squirrels, 2004–2006. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 15(7), 1005-1011. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1507.081305.