As the article states, this is somewhat common in homeless populations. It should have clarified that it's spread by body lice [1], not head lice, which cause m

As the article states, this is somewhat common in homeless populations. It should have clarified that it's spread by body lice [1], not head lice, which cause millions of infestations in the US elementary schools, but otherwise are relatively harmless [2]. PS. This is confusing in light of [3]. [1] https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/230294-overview https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/230294-overview (https://archive.vn/NSqa8 https://archive.vn/NSqa8) Trench fever is a clinical syndrome caused by infection with Bartonella quintana; the condition was first described during World War I. Contemporary B quintana disease, commonly referred to as urban trench fever, is typically found in homeless, alcoholic, and poor populations. The human body louse Pediculus humanus var corporis is the major vector involved in trench fever transmission. [2] https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/epi.html https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/epi.html In the United States, infestation with head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) is most common among preschool- and elementary school-age children and their household members and caretakers. Head lice are not known to transmit disease; however, secondary bacterial infection of the skin resulting from scratching can occur with any lice infestation. [3] https://jbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/jbiol114 https://jbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/jbiol114 Head and body lice used to be designated Pediculus capitis and P. corporis but they are now known to belong to the same species, P. humanus x[16, 17]. Fifty years ago Levene and Dobzhansky [18] showed that head lice could be trained or adapted to become the rather larger body lice by attaching them to the body in small pill boxes. [...] Body lice, and occasionally head and pubic lice, transmit bacterial diseases: typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii) [29], trench fever (Bartonella quintana) and relapsing fever (Borellia recurrentis). The lice themselves succumb to typhus infection but pass the Rickettsia in their feces, which the human then scratches into the skin. Typhus is known as 'war fever' and 'jail fever' because it appears in conditions where lice thrive. At the end of Rats, Lice and History Zinsser [1] wrote "Typhus is not dead. It will live on for centuries and will break into the open whenever human stupidity and brutality give it a chance." Sadly, Zinsser's words were prophetic. Within a few years, typhus became the major slayer in the Nazi concentration camps; typhus broke out among Rwandan refugees in Burundi in 1994, in Bosnia in 1995 and most recently in Goma.