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Public health officials are warning pet owners to take precautions for themselves and their four-legged family members. Fret not: There are several simple precautions you can take to prevent a flea-borne typhus infection. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department identified 220 cases of flea-borne typhus last year, a stark increase over the 187 cases in 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n Of the total number of cases in 2025, nearly 9 out of 10 people infected with typhus required hospitalization, according to public health officials. <\/p>\n Flea-borne typhus is caused by the bacterium Rickettsia typhi. <\/i>Fleas become infected when they bite infected animals such as rats, stray cats or opossums, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. Once infected, the flea spreads the disease to humans when flea feces is rubbed into cuts or scrapes on the skin or the eyes. <\/p>\n The number of typhus cases in the county has increased since 2021<\/a>, when there were 141 recorded cases, rising to 171 in 2022. There was a slight decrease in 2023 with 124 cases, but the number picked back up in 2024. <\/p>\n Cases have been reported across Los Angeles County, but authorities identified three localized outbreaks in 2025. <\/p>\n The outbreaks occurred in central Los Angeles, Santa Monica and the unincorporated neighborhood of Willowbrook near Compton, according to public health officials. <\/p>\n Typhus cases occur year-round but tend to peak during the late summer and fall months because the warmer weather increases flea activity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Everyone is at risk of contracting typhus. <\/p>\n The ages of the people infected in Los Angeles in 2025 ranged from 1 to 85, according to public health officials.<\/p>\n People who live outdoors or in housing infested with rats or other rodents face a high risk of contracting the disease, according to public health officials. <\/p>\n Often, people are exposed to the disease when infected fleas are carried indoors on pets or other animals. <\/p>\n Fleas that spread typhus are commonly found on stray animals, rodents and other wildlife, according to public health officials. <\/p>\n What you can do to protect yourself and your pets:<\/p>\n Symptoms appear within one to two weeks after becoming infected. <\/p>\n Flea-borne typhus infection symptoms include fever, headache, chills, body aches and a rash on or around the chest, sides and back. <\/p>\n The disease is treatable with antibiotics, and early diagnosis helps prevent severe illness and hospitalization. <\/p>\n It\u2019s uncommon to die from flea-borne typhus, but it has occurred in Los Angeles County. In 2022, three people died of the disease;<\/a> all were adults with underlying conditions. <\/p>\n If you have any of the typhus symptoms, reach out to your healthcare provider right away. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Attention pet parents: Los Angeles County is reporting a record number of flea-borne typhus cases. Public health officials are warning pet owners to take precautions for themselves and their four-legged family members. Fret not: There are several simple precautions you can take to prevent a flea-borne typhus infection. The Los Angeles County Public Health Department … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Typhus-from-fleas-hits-record-level-in-LA-Here-are-the.com2F692F3f2Fd052ce2e4acc805e59d4b323.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26387,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385\/revisions\/26387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Typhus hot spots in Los Angeles County<\/h2>\n
Why last year\u2019s numbers matter today<\/h2>\n
Who is at risk of contracting flea-borne typhus<\/h2>\n
How to protect yourself and your pet<\/h2>\n
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What to do if you contract typhus<\/h2>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"