ICD-11

A disease caused by an infection with the gram-negative bacteria Rickettsia. This disease is characterised by fever, delirium, back pain, or arthralgia. Transmission is commonly through the bite of an infected flea, louse, mite, or tick.

Group of acute, arthropod borne infections caused by rickettsiae; includes epidemic (classic or louse-borne) typhus, its recrudescent form, and murine (endemic or flea-borne) typhus; all are characterized by severe headache, chills, high fever, stupor, and rash.

This is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters. The causative organism is Rickettsia prowazekii, transmitted by the human body louse (Pediculus humanus corporis). This diagnosis is due to a species of gram-negative, obligate intracellular parasitic, aerobic bacteria (belonging to the class Alphaproteobacteria) that is the aetiologic agent of epidemic typhus, transmitted in the faeces of lice.