Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2004 Mar;18(1):127-40.

The history of epidemic typhus.

Source

Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 130005 Marseille, France.

Abstract

Few infectious diseases have influenced human civilization to the same degree as louse-transmitted typhus. Rickettsia prowazekii continues to strikes tens to hundreds of thousands of persons who live with war, famine, crowding, and in squalid conditions associated with social unrest, with mortality rates in excess of 10% to 15%. Historical documents confirm that such devastation has been a continuous feature of human existence to the extent that typhus has been a major determinant in the outcome of many wars, altering human history in its wake-despite incomplete knowledge of its precise origin. In the twenty-first century, circumstances are still conductive for outbreak; the emerging threat of bioterrorism raises justifiable concerns that typhus could affect civilization just as greatly in the future as it has in the past.

PMID:: 15081509; [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Cited by 7 PubMed Central articles

Structure of fumarate hydratase from Rickettsia prowazekii, the agent of typhus and suspected relative of the mitochondria. [Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst C...]
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Phan I, Subramanian S, Olsen C, Edwards TE, Guo W, Zhang Y, Van Voorhis WC, Stewart LJ, Myler PJ. Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2011 Sep 1; 67(Pt 9):1123-8. Epub 2011 Aug 16.
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Nguyen-Hieu T, Aboudharam G, Signoli M, Rigeade C, Drancourt M, Raoult D. PLoS One. 2010 Oct 27; 5(10):e15405. Epub 2010 Oct 27.
Adipose tissue serves as a reservoir for recrudescent Rickettsia prowazekii infection in a mouse model. [PLoS One. 2010]
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The history of epidemic typhus.

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Abstract

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LinkOut - more resources

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Cited by 7 PubMed Central articles

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