Typhus
Amanda Ferraro
A typhus patient would display
Characteristic Rash
Fever
Typhus patients exhibit a
characteristic stupor.
The name “typhus” comes
from the Greek word for stupor
typhos (τῦφος)
Doctors test for anemia, low
platelets, and typhus antibodies
There are three types of Typhus
Endemic
Scrub
Epidemic
The bacteria Rickettsia
prowazekii causes Epidemic
Typhus
Rickettsia prowazekii are
intracellular parasites.
Rickettsia prowazekii share a
common ancestor with
mitochondria
Rickettsia prowazekii
Mitochondria
How would I get Typhus?
Body Lice Feces
Sharing Contaminated Clothing
“Outbreaks of epidemic typhus are
rare except during periods when
normal hygiene is disrupted, as in
refugee camps arising from wars or
natural disasters. It also occurs in
some populations living in higher
elevations during the colder months
when louse-infested clothing is not
laundered and person-to-person
spread of lice is common.”
Typhus epidemics raged
throughout Europe for
centuries, often caused by
war
Typhus epidemics raged
throughout Europe for centuries,
often caused by war.
“Seventy percent of
the 300,000 core
troops that marched
with Napoleon out of
France died of
typhus before
reaching Moscow.”
There are still a few cases of
Typhus is the US each year
The bacteria are “eaten” by
the cell.
The bacteria destroy the cell
How do we treat someone
with Typhus?
Rickettsia prowazekii are
difficult to treat because
they only replicate within
host cells.
They are
OBLIGATE PARASITES
They use OUR cell machinery!
Doxycycline is used to treat Typhus

(Tetracycline Drug)
Doxycycline works by
blocking protein synthesis
Why don’t tetracycline
drugs interfere with our
protein synthesis?
Doxycycline “preferentially
binds to bacterial (30s)
ribosomes due to structural
differences in RNA subunits.”
Without these proteins, the
bacteria cannot reproduce
within the cell, and the cells
eventually die or are killed
off by the immune system.
Doxycycline is not very costly
The patient takes 2
doxycycline tablets per
day for 10 days.
The patient takes 2
doxycycline tablets per
day for 10 days.
COSTS ABOUT $2!
Chloramphenicol, a second
line drug, also inhibits protein
synthesis
Although chloramphenicol
is cheap and easy to
produce, it has potentially
serious side effects.
Although it is cheap and easy
to produce, it has potentially
serious side effects.
Used mainly in cases of drug
resistant bacteria.
Given the proper treatment,
almost all patients recover.
Brill-Zinsser disease occurs
when a previously ‘cured’
patient relapses.
More mild than the initial disease
Works Cited
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