Back in 2018, I reported that over 100 people in the Los Angeles area had contracted the bacterial disease typhus, and the area’s public health officials began sounding the alarm about the spread of the infectious disease.
At the epicenter of the epidemic were the homeless camps, and the Los Angeles Police Department station nearest to the city’s Skid Row had to battle rats and fleas that spread typhus bacteria as officers attempted to protect themselves from illness.
The city’s problem with typhoid was steady news through 2019. Sadly, the problem still has not disappeared.
Los Angeles County is now reporting a record countywide surge in typhus, with 220 confirmed human cases in 2025 and about 90% requiring hospitalization. Furthermore, there are now multiple localized “outbreak zones” besides Skid Row, including in Santa Monica.
Flea-borne typhus is caused by the bacterium Rickettsia typhi. Fleas become infected when they bite infected animals such as rats, stray cats or opossums, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Once infected, the flea spreads the disease to humans when flea feces is rubbed into cuts or scrapes on the skin or the eyes....
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