Evaluation of County-Wide DDT Dusting Operations in Murine Typhus Control

Hill, Elmer L.; Morlan, Harvey B.

doi:10.2307/4586791

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…After the war, it became commercially available in the U.S. and was widely implemented in various fashions to control insect pests for home and agricultural purposes [52]. Although rat control measures had been previously implemented in campaigns to control murine typhus, it was not until DDT was systematically used on rat runs and rat harborages that traction was achieved in the control of murine typhus [53,54]. Approximately 5400 cases were reported at the U.S.'s peak incidence in 1944.…”

Section: Ecology Of An Emerging and Reemerging Infectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Murine Typhus: A Review of a Reemerging Flea-Borne Rickettsiosis with Potential for Neurologic Manifestations and Sequalae

Blanton

2023

Infectious Disease Reports

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Murine typhus is an acute febrile illness caused by Rickettsia typhi, an obligately intracellular Gram-negative coccobacillus. Rats (Rattus species) and their fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) serve as the reservoir and vector of R. typhi, respectively. Humans become infected when R. typhi-infected flea feces are rubbed into flea bite wounds or onto mucous membranes. The disease is endemic throughout much of the world, especially in tropical and subtropical seaboard regions where rats are common. Murine typhus is reemerging as an important cause of febrile illness in Texas and Southern California, where an alternate transmission cycle likely involves opossums (Didelphis virginiana) and cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis). Although primarily an undifferentiated febrile illness, a range of neurologic manifestations may occur, especially when treatment is delayed. Serology is the mainstay of diagnostic testing, but confirmation usually requires demonstrating seroconversion or a fourfold increase in antibody titer from acute- and convalescent-phase sera (antibodies are seldom detectable in the first week of illness). Thus, early empiric treatment with doxycycline, the drug of choice, is imperative. The purpose of this review is to highlight murine typhus as an important emerging and reemerging infectious disease, review its neurologic manifestations, and discuss areas in need of further study.

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Section: Ecology Of An Emerging and Reemerging Infectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Murine Typhus: A Review of a Reemerging Flea-Borne Rickettsiosis with Potential for Neurologic Manifestations and Sequalae

Blanton

2023

Infectious Disease Reports

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“…In the mid to late 1940s, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was used on rat runs and rat harborages in campaigns to control murine typhus in the United States. 63,64 These efforts decreased the flea burden on rats with a remarkable effect on the incidence of murine typhus in the United States (5,401 cases in 1944 compared with 98 in 1956). 65 DDT was used extensively in Latin America from the 1950s to the 1970s for the control of malaria, 66 with incidental control of other vector-borne diseases.…”

Section: Classic and Changing Ecology Of Murine Typhusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Murine Typhus in Latin America: Perspectives of a Once Recognized but Now Neglected Vector-Borne Disease

Faccini-Martínez

Walker

Blanton

2022

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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“…Dusting once a year at the optimum time may maintain the ectoparasite populations at a low level in a rather stable commensal rat population. When both rats and ectoparasites 4 percent of the population.…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Control and Eradicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Murine Typhus Investigations in Southwestern Georgia: A Review

Love¹,

Smith²

1960

Public Health Reports (1896-1970)

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EFFORTS to control murine typhus fever in the southeastern United States, although overshadowed by accomplishments in the con¬ trol of malaria, have achieved results which are almost as spectacular. An outstanding reduction of murine typhus transmission was accomplished within 25 years after the role of the rat and rat flea as host and vector of murine typhus was first suggested by Maxcy in 1926 (1) on the basis of epidemiological studies in Alabama and Georgia and validated in 1931 by Dyer, Rumreich, and Badger (#), who isolated the pathogen from fleas collected from wild rats.The introduction of DDT, an insecticide with prolonged residual toxicity, into typhus control programs in 1945 and of anticoagulant rat poison in 1947 provided the tools with which the control of murine typhus was finally ac¬ complished (fig. 1).Incidence of the disease always has been greatest in the southeastern section of the coun¬ try (fig. 2). Reported cases from 10 of the southeastern States rose from 1,799 in 1940 to 5,292 in 1944. Studies by Hill and co-workers

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Evaluation of County-Wide DDT Dusting Operations in Murine Typhus Control

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

Murine Typhus: A Review of a Reemerging Flea-Borne Rickettsiosis with Potential for Neurologic Manifestations and Sequalae

Murine Typhus: A Review of a Reemerging Flea-Borne Rickettsiosis with Potential for Neurologic Manifestations and Sequalae

Murine Typhus in Latin America: Perspectives of a Once Recognized but Now Neglected Vector-Borne Disease

Murine Typhus Investigations in Southwestern Georgia: A Review

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