Flea bites giving the chills

WHILE most people are by now well aware of the disease leptospirosis caused by rats, there is another little-known health threat that hides on the rodent. 

The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) Health and Environment Department is taking pro-active steps now to pre-empt any possibility of an outbreak by alerting the public to flea-borne typhus (murine typhus). It is a disease transmitted to humans through infected fleas living on rats, resulting in high fever and rash. 

Department director Dr Chitra Davi N. Vadivellu said the threat was compounded when restaurants and residential areas dumped food waste indiscriminately and enabled the rat population to thrive.   Read more ....