NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Until a few days ago, about all I remembered about typhus was that my microbiology textbooks had an old black and white photo of American GI’s dusting Italians with DDT to control an epidemic of lice after the allies took Italy in WWII. Lice can spread a form of typhus called epidemic typhus.

I was surprised recently to learn that a slightly different form of typhus called murine typhus can be transmitted by fleas rather than lice. Several people in Huntington Beach contracted murine typhus recently, some after handling a feral cat, and one after coming in contact with an opossum. Fleas were the vector that transmitted the disease.

Now it happens that I really hate fleas. Lou and I once lived in a house in Connecticut where the fleas were as thick as, well, fleas. We shared an old farmhouse with another couple, and they had a dog. They moved out in August a few weeks before we did. With the hot, humid weather of August and no host animal, the zillions of fleas left behind hopped onto us.

Fleas covered us so thickly that white socks pulled up over our pants legs (in a vain attempt to keep the fleas out of our pants) were quickly coated in black. Below the knees, our legs were covered with red bumps and scabs that itched like crazy all summer long.

I didn’t know it then, but fleas like hot weather. In fact, I didn’t know much about fleas at all until I met Lou. I had grown up in San Mateo County, in Northern California, only a few blocks from a street called Alameda de las Pulgas, which translates to “Avenue of the Fleas.” But I never saw fleas or suffered their ugly bites. The reason was probably that my family had few pets, at least flea-supporting pets like cats or dogs. Pets didn’t really come into my life in a major way until I met Lou. She introduced me to living with cats — and fleas.

Veterinary science has advanced dramatically in the decades since we lived in Connecticut. These days there are remarkable treatments such as Advantage and Frontline that do a great job of keeping fleas off pets. Advantage contains the active ingredient imidacloprid, a neurotoxin that paralyzes the fleas. They die within 24 to 48 hours. Frontline contains fipronil and methoprene, which also effectively kills fleas. If you have cats or dogs, see your vet about one of these newer products. Don’t bother with flea collars. They don’t work.

Another important weapon in the battle against fleas is the vacuum cleaner. I got Lou a nice vacuum cleaner for Christmas one year and you would have thought I had given her the plague instead. She didn’t seem the least bit grateful for the gift and used it more as a coat rack than a cleaning tool. But vacuuming is key to getting rid of pet hair and flea eggs. That was one reason why we had so many fleas in our house, I’m sure. Their eggs, larvae and pupae never got vacuumed up.

Fleas spend a good part of their time off the host animal, hopping on only to get a blood meal so they can lay eggs. A female flea can lay up to 2,000 eggs in her lifetime, which is about six to 12 months. The eggs hatch into nearly invisible larvae, which then form pupae. These hard-cased pupae can lie dormant for a long time, waiting for conditions to become right for hatching.

As soon as the days turn hot, the pupae hatch into adult fleas and go looking for a blood meal. And as the climate gets warmer, fleas become a bigger problem for a greater part of the year. Once again, global warming affects us in some bad ways. The warm January days that we’ve been having aren’t just good beach days. They’re also good flea-hatching days. In our area, flea treatment is necessary for pets year-round.

Fleas are a part of the natural environment, and so is typhus, at least murine typhus has affected dozens of folks in Orange County recently. Murine means mouse. Murine typhus is generally found in cat fleas (also called rat fleas). These fleas also live on wildlife such as mice, rats, squirrels, raccoons and opossums. Cat fleas can be found on dogs as well, although their preferred host is cats and the above-mentioned wildlife.

Fleas on any of these animals can harbor the typhus bacteria, so it’s a good idea to leave wildlife and feral cats alone. Wild animals are not pets. Their well-being and ours are both improved if we refrain from the temptation to feed them and diminish their wildness. The important thing is to break the link between the fleas on wild animals and the fleas on our pets. This can easily be done by treating pets for fleas.

Murine typhus is also called endemic typhus. It is caused by a species of bacterium called Rickettsia typha. The disease caused by murine typhus is similar to, but milder than, epidemic typhus. (Epidemic typhus is a more severe disease. It is spread by Rickettsia that are carried by human lice, and is 60% fatal in people older than 50.) Symptoms of murine typhus are chills, fever, headache and rash. Symptoms generally appear about 10 days after being bitten. The good news is that this type of typhus is an easily treated bacterial infection (not viral, as reported in some other local papers).

The recent cases of murine typhus in Huntington Beach can serve to teach us a useful lesson, or they can cause a panic of fear and hysteria. Let’s choose learning.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.