Talk:Epidemic typhus

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 August 2020 and 11 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Rdh9hn, DylanDunbar24.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:44, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Seriously
Symptoms? Where have they gone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.218.241.44 (talk) 00:03, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Lethal Disease?
can you die of this if you did not get the right medical treatment?

nope -- many people, particularly in poor areas of the world, or in areas undergoing military conflict, live. It was a major cause of death in concentration camps in WWII, for example see Concentration camp Theresienstadt. It appears that a history section is needed in our article. Prevention -- good food, clean water, bedding and housing -- is the primary defense, but modern medicine provides good treatment and most people survive. See for general overview. WBardwin 23:27, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

yes, especially in undeveloped countries.

Just like Anne frank. speaking of anne frank someone should put a link to anne frank Ricky Ricky 00:29, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

No introduction to Rickettsia
I think Rickettsia needs to be introduced as the causitive bacterium before beginning a sentence with "Rickettsia is endemic..." It's very confusing if you don't know what Rickettsia is. Jawshoeaw 08:37, 9 July 2007 (UTC)Jawshoeaw

Merge?
See Epidemic typhus article. Should we combine? WBardwin

Yes, definitelyBlaise 11:38, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Ancient Athens
In the history of the disease, there is no reference in the epidemic of ancient Athens, around 429 BC, which also killed Pericles. Most researchers now agree that this epidemic was typhus. Shouldn't this information be added in the article? --Yannismarou 12:06, 4 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Yannismarou, I believe that you found and edited Plague of Athens, so you may have noticed that both typhus and typhoid are the current front runners for the causes of the epidemic. If editors here want to have a paragraph about the plague and modern research, I would be happy to help draft it.  WBardwin 20:34, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I hope that this shall happen and I add that two very important researchers and interpretators of Thucydides' history (Vlachos and Gomme) believe that typhus was the cause of the epidemic. --Yannismarou 12:03, 5 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Do you have sources (internet or paper) for Vlachos and Gomme? First names?  Thanks.  WBardwin 02:43, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

What I do know: I hope I have helped somehow!--Yannismarou 11:16, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Angelos Vlachos (Άγγελος Βλάχος) (member of the Academy of Athens and diplomat), "Remarks on Thoucydides" (written n Greek: Παρατηρήσεις στο Θουκυδίδη), 1992, Volume I, pages 177-178: "Today,according to Gomme, it is generally acceptable that it was typhus" ("Σήμερα, όπως γράφει ο Gomme, έχει γίνει από όλους παραδεκτό ότι ήταν τύφος).
 * Vlachos, referring to Gomme, means a monumental work of A.W.Gomme, "Historic Comments on Thucydides" (Unfortunately, I donot possess it), complemented after Gomme's death by A. Andrews and K.J. Dover.


 * OK? edit the paragraph if you like. WBardwin 22:19, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

The Pandemic article states that definitive evidence was found that this epidemic was caused by typhoid fever. The Typhoid Fever article states doubts about this evidence. I believe the Bubonic Plague article make similar claims. If there is uncertainty to the cause, that should be reported in each article, as well as Epidemic and List of epidemics, rather than having each article state something different. 68.239.129.42 18:09, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Typhus in World War II
...Even though it must be expected that the figures given in this report might be exaggerated, the fact that Polish underground fighters caused some casualties to the German occupational forces is indubitable, and even though such guerilla warfare against an occupational power is illegal, one cannot blame the Poles morally for waging such a war against what they conceived to be an illegal occupation. What is of interest here is the penultimate page of this report, which lists under "3. Activities of retaliation":

"Typhoid fever microbes and typhoid fever lice: in a few hundred cases"

Aspects of Biological Warfare During World War II-- contributed unsigned by 198.54.202.82 (15 June 2006)

Typhus and Typhoid fever are two distinct diseases, but this external link doesn't seem to understand the difference. The quotation above accurately reflects the web site quoted. Even though typhus was a major killer in WWII, I would say this external site is not dependable enough, without reference to another source. WBardwin 21:48, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

DDT was developed during WW2, not between WW1 and WW2. 159.105.80.141 11:03, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Was ther any attempt in WW2 to let the Red Cross, etc use DDT to combat typhus in German camps, etc? There were enough negotiations going on behind the scenes to alert the Allies that millions were dying of typhus - why no action. The discovery of massive deths after the war almost seems feigned by Eisenhower etc.159.105.80.141 11:41, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

vaccinations?
Are they still recommended for everywhere in the world?

Faked Polish Typhus Epidemic in WW II
In 1942, Dr. Eugeniusz Lazowski and Dr. Stanisław Matulewicz used the Proteus_OX19 bacterium - which gave a false positive to the most common typhus screening method of the time, the Weil-Felix test - to fool the occupation German authorities into believing a Typhus epidemic existed in the Polish town of Rozwadow. I'm wondering if there should be mention made of this somewhere in this article? Johnmc 17:06, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

From "Talk:Endemic typhus"
I mistakenly moved Endemic typhus to Murine typhus when what is required is a redirect in the other direction, since Murine typhus is a form of endemic typhus and currently doesn't jusify a separate article. I'm trying to find an admin to fix this problem. If I can't, I will post on Requested moves. --Viriditas | Talk 06:39, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Merge?
See Typhus article. Should we combine? WBardwin 03:35, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I think it's an eminently good idea, though I'd prefer not to lose information in the process :) It's really a part of what one would look at typhus, and seeing other types of typhus provides good context for people looking up epidemic typhus. And they are highly related diseases.  FYI, I don't think these pages have much in common as far as information so a merge is going to have lots of simple copy/paste :)  It's already kind of a subsidiary article. Jkeiser 17:09, 5 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't think that is a very good idea. They are very diffrent articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.236.202.13 (talk • contribs) 28 August 2006


 * yes the are such similer diseases. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.175.225.138 (talk • contribs) 28 September 2006


 * They should be merged, for they are similar and they would benefit a great deal from each other by being combined. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eracoy (talk • contribs) 30 January 2007


 * Merge, obviously. Vidor 15:42, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I think it reasonable to merge all the typhus articles into one .. I think separating them all is too pedantic--Doctorpete 10:14, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Endemic typhus
Should Endemic typhus be merged too?—68.239.129.42 03:09, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes that page is just a stub now, and would not hurt either articles.--DO11.10 00:12, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I have edited the part which says Helen Burns in Jane Eyre dies of typhus, because she does not. She dies of tuberculosis, in the middle of a typhus epidemic. Volume one, chapter 9 if anyone's interested.

Is there cure for typhus?
Is there a cure for typhus? If so, who discovered it and how? If you are reading this and you know, please add the answer. Typhus is a bacterial infection and so is treated through a standard antibiotic course — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aurelianoscuriti (talk • contribs) 00:55, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Sylvatic Typhus
Should this article mention sylvatic typhus? I (inadvertantly) stumbled across a description of sylvatic typhus on this page when doing unrelated research on flying squirrels.

Apparently, louse infestation is relatively rare in the United States, so a large proportion of recent Rickettsia prowazekii infections in the U.S. were cases of sylvatic typhus spread by contact with flying squirrels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chukhung (talk • contribs) 23:26, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Interwiki Conflict Alert
When changing interwikis to similarly spelled names in other languages, be very careful. For example, in Russian and Ukrainian "тиф" is a name for a group of diseases, including typhoid fever and relapsing fever. Interwiki bots tend to insert incorrect interwikis; please help in resolving this interwiki conflict. I will do my best to correct the interwikis in as much languages as I can based on my understanding. --Maxxicum (talk) 13:12, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Old page history
Some old page history that used to be in the titles "Epidemic typhus" and "Talk:Epidemic typhus" can now be found at Talk:Epidemic typhus/History and Talk:Epidemic typhus/Talk page history, respectively. Graham 87 13:08, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Typhus epidemic of 1847
I've just created a start-up article Typhus epidemic of 1847, focused on its impact in Canada from 1847-1848. I believe it should be globalized in scope. If you agree, please feel free to expand and edit. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 01:03, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Identifier of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus - Charles Jules Henry Nicolle (1866 Rouen – 1936 Tunis)
I've just come to the wikipage on epidemic typhus from a link to epidemic typhus from the wikipage on Charles Nicolle. Currently, the information here on the historical discovery of the aetiology of epidemic typhus contradicts or fails to acknowledge or incorporate any of the typhus information on the Charles Nicolle wikipage. Thus, in the opening paragraph:

"'Charles Jules Henry Nicolle (21 September 1866 Rouen – 28 February 1936 Tunis) was a French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus.'"

(Under Accomplishments)

"Nicolle's major accomplishments in bacteriology and parasitology were:

The discovery of the transmission method of typhus fever"

(Under Discovery of the Vector)

"Nicolle's discovery came about first from his observation that, while epidemic typhus patients were able to infect other patients inside and outside the hospital, and their very clothes seemed to spread the disease, they were no longer infectious when they had had a hot bath and a change of clothes. Once he realized this, he reasoned that it was most likely that lice were the vector for epidemic typhus.

In June 1909 Nicolle tested his theory by infecting a chimpanzee with typhus, retrieving the lice from it, and placing it on a healthy chimpanzee. Within 10 days the second chimpanzee had typhus as well. After repeating his experiment he was sure of it: lice were the carriers.

Further research showed that the major transmission method was not louse bites but excrement: lice infected with typhus turn red and die after a couple of weeks, but in the meantime they excrete a large number of microbes. When a small quantity of this is rubbed on the skin or eye, an infection occurs."

I suggest that the current epidemic typhus page needs to be edited to be made consistent with the information about the history of the discovery of the aetiology of epidemic typhus on the Charles Nicolle wikipage. The latter may also need to be edited if any of the claims about Nicolle's role are incorrect, inaccurate or cannot be supported.60.228.86.229 (talk) 16:28, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

ICD-10
Isn't the correct ICD-10 notation A75.0 instead of A75.1? A75.1 is the notation for "recrudescent typhus/Brill's disease", and A75.0 for "epidemic louse-borne typhus fever due to Rickettsia prowazekii".Klementin (talk) 03:28, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

Diagnosis
What does the diagnosis of IFA, ELISA or PCR positive after 10 days mean? Can this be elaborated on or explained more clearly?Rdh9hn (talk) 16:51, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Some additional info the history of Typhus outbreaks
I added some minor changes to the history of typhus epidemics. Some minor changes, mainly I added and reworded some info about the outbreak in Napoleon's troops during the 30 years war, and the outbreak during the Crimean war. DylanDunbar24 (talk) 19:34, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

History Section Additions
I am going to add some information to the history section in a subsection about the history of vaccine development. This addition will specifically look at the development of vaccines during the second world war. Rdh9hn (talk) 17:20, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Signs and Symptoms/General Overview Section
I am adding information and re-organzing the signs and symptoms section. Also, I am adding some information to the general overview portion of article, nothing too big though DylanDunbar24 (talk) 17:38, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Added links and photos
I added links to the following subject in the article: Salmonella Typhi, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Richard Nixon. I also added a photo of British Port Medical Officers from 1942 in the history section of the article DylanDunbar24 (talk) 18:09, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

disease transmission
It says in the introductory paragraph that typhus can be transmitted through contaminated food and water but under the transmission paragraph gives no indication as to how this occurs. It simply describes the vector-borne route of transmission. How is typhus transmitted via food and water? Is it present in the fecal matter of infected humans? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.248.13.32 (talk) 22:24, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Transmission
I looked at the complaint, and I went in and added a short description about how it can be transmitted through food and water. Thank you for the feedback! DylanDunbar24 (talk) 17:01, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Basic errors in article
I have deleted some basic errors in the article - there was confusion between typhus and Typhoid fever. If you don't know the difference, please find another article to edit.ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 18:50, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Signs/Symptoms section
I noticed you deleted the signs and symptoms section. You mentioned the difference between typhoid fever and typhus, but they share similar symptoms. So I am going to put them back in. If you're going to edit a section, please fix it with proper information and do not just delete it. 216.229.78.51 (talk) 22:40, 10 December 2020 (UTC)


 * No problem as long as the added material is referenced. The deleted material was referenced to a source about typhoid fever, so simple reinstatement won't do the job.ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 22:45, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

I do appreciate the feedback. I made sure to fix the information and add replace it with the proper info. DylanDunbar24 (talk) 23:08, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Edits
I added the signs/symptoms back. They are correct, they come from multiple health organizations. It is also a disease, the symptoms of it are important if someone wants to learn about it. I added a prevention section because once again, it is a disease. People who are researching may want to know how to avoid it. I also added some information to the overview tab because a lot got deleted. If you don't agree with it, please research it. You find it correct and from reputable sources. Thank you. DylanDunbar24 (talk) 23:05, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Murine Typhus
I also added a short paragraph in the overview section about murine typhus. Murine typhus was a necessary addition because this form is caused by the same organism, has the same symptoms, has the same treatment, etc. But it is endemic to the united states and is carried through rat feces and fleas instead of louse, so i figured it was worth a brief description in case a reader would come in to the article confused with the two. DylanDunbar24 (talk) 23:33, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Literature section
From §Literature, I'm striking (2009) In The Last Will and Testament of Zephaniah Mann., Zephaniah Mann claimed to have contracted "Putrid Fever" in his will. Zephaniah is an NPC in the video game Team Fortress 2. The will does say he "contracted putrid fever", but seeing as this is a video game, not a book, I'm not sure this should be includes -- given the lack of secondary sources. Perhaps in the future the representation of typhus in video games will have enough sourcing to warrant a mention here though. Umimmak (talk) 00:16, 22 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I'm also striking (1922) Lisa, the main character in the novel Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig, contracts typhus, along with her son, and she writes her lost love the titular letter from a hospital ward before dying. -- she died of influenza in the novella; it was only typhus in the 1948 film adaptation. If there ends up being room to include films as well, this can be added back. Umimmak (talk) 01:19, 22 April 2021 (UTC)