Number of typhus cases
is up from last year
WAILUKU >> Murine typhus cases in Hawaii have risen to nine statewide, one above the number for the same period last year.
Typhus cases rose last year to the highest levels since 1947, which was the highest nonwar outbreak, according to state health officials.
Still, they said the numbers this year are too small, and it is too early to determine if there is a trend that will top last year's total of 47.
So far this year, murine typhus cases amount to six on Maui -- one in Paia, one in Lahaina and four in Kihei -- one on Molokai in Kaunakakai, and two on Oahu -- one in Waianae and one in Ewa Beach.
Dr. Paul Kitsutani, an official with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention working with the state, said one of the nine, an Ewa Beach man who had a "moderately severe illness," required hospitalization.
Symptoms of murine typhus include fever, rash, body aches and headaches. The infection can be treated with antibiotics.
People typically contract murine typhus from fleas that first bite an infected rodent, then a human being. The flea feces, carrying the bacteria Rickettsia typhi, then enter through the bite in the skin.
State health officials said other than last year when there were 47 confirmed cases of murine typhus statewide, an average of four or five cases occur annually.
None of the 47 died but 18 people were hospitalized, including a Lahaina man who suffered encephalitis and kidney failure.
State vector control workers have been employing various strategies to control the rodent population.
In South Maui and Molokai, workers have been placing poison oats in the fields.
In Lahaina the oats have been put into bait traps to avoid poisoning endangered nene geese.
Dr. Lorrin Pang, state health administrator on Maui, said state workers have noticed a decrease in the number of mice in traps this year in South Maui. Pang did not know the reason for the decrease in mice.
He said the rodents often begin to come out of the fields in the fall when there is dry weather.
The number of confirmed typhus cases in 2002 reached its peak in September with 11.