Fact sheets
The Department of Health, Western Australia, does not produce fact sheets on this topic.
Public Health action
Notifiable disease data and reports
Additional sources of information
Exclusion
Typhus
Case: not required after proper delousing of patient, clothing, living quarters and household contacts.
Contacts: susceptible persons infested with lice and exposed to typhus fever should ordinarily be quarantined for 15 days if possible after application of an insecticide with residual effect.
Case definition
Rickettsial infection includes murine typhus, louse borne typhus, scrub typhus, Queensland tick typhus, African tick typhus and the "spotted fevers".
Only confirmed cases should be notified.
Confirmed case
A confirmed case requires laboratory definitive evidence only.
Laboratory definitive evidence
1. Detection of Rickettsia species in a clinical specimen;
OR
2. A fourfold or greater rise in serum antibody titres between acute and convalescent phase sera;
OR
3. A single elevated antibody titre in a patient with a clinically compatible illness.
