DIAGNOSIS
Because the signs of epidemic typhus are comparable to those of numerous other illnesses, consult your doctor if you develop symptoms of epidemic typhus after traveling or having contact with animals. Furthermore, you must notify your health physician if you’ve come into touch with flying squirrels or their nests.
Moreover, your medical provider may ask for a blood test to check and other infections. The processing of lab tests and findings might take a few weeks. Your doctor might begin therapy before the results are available.
TREATMENT
Antibiotics are used to treat the disease. To stabilize the person, oxygen and intravenous fluids might be required. Doxycycline, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline are the most regularly employed antibiotics. Vaccination may also help to avoid illness. Furthermore, a few of the most basic techniques of treatment and prevention approaches for typhus are as follows:
- Avoiding body lice infection
- Replacing clothes thoroughly
- Washing contaminated items in hot water
- Cleaning used bed sheets
Clothing that goes unwashed and unused for a week kills lice and their eggs since they don’t have contact with a human host. Another method of lice control is to dust contaminated clothes with a powder that contains 1% permethrin, 1% malathion, and 10% DDT, all of which destroy lice and their eggs.
There is no vaccine accessible to protect against epidemic typhus. As a result, you must take the following precautions:
- Prevents contact with bigger rodents, including opossums, squirrels, or rats
- Congested
- Unhygienic
