Volume 15, Number 7—July 2009
CME ACTIVITY - Research
Cluster of Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Cases Associated with Flying Squirrels, 2004–2006
Alice S. Chapman1, David L. Swerdlow, Virginia M. Dato, Alicia D. Anderson, Claire E. Moodie, Chandra Marriott, Brian Amman, Morgan J. Hennessey, Perry Fox, Douglas B. Green, Eric Pegg, William L. Nicholson, Marina E. Eremeeva, and Gregory A. Dasch
Table 1
Characteristics of patients with flying squirrel–associated sylvatic typhus, Pennsylvania, USA, 2004–2006*
| Patient no. (age, y)* | Date of illness onset | Exposure‡ |
Hospitalized | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Touched flying squirrel | Slept in bunk B | Serologic titer (date) |
Clinical sign§ |
||||||||
| IgG | IgM | Fever, °C | Headache | Photophobia | |||||||
| 1 (31) | 2006 Jan | No | A | 512 (2006 Feb) | 4,096 (2006 Feb) | 39.6 | Yes | No | Yes | ||
| 2 (39) | 2004 Dec | Yes | F | 1,024 (2006 Mar) | 512 (2006 Mar) | 40.3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 3 (26) | 2005 Jan | No | F | 128 (2006 Mar) | ND | 39.4 | No | No | No | ||
| 4 (26) | 2005 Dec | No | S | 256 (2006 Mar) | ND | 39.8 | Yes | Yes | No | ||
*Ig, immunoglobulin titer against Rickettsia prowazekii; ND, not done.
†All patients were male.
‡All patients lived in cabin A. A, always; F, frequently; S, sometimes.
§All patients had chills and muscle pain but not rash.
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