| The term trench fever refers to the crowded | | | | bites, are infective. If these infective excreta be rubbed |
| conditions in which troops fought in during World War I | | | | into a scratch or scarification trench fever develops in |
| and World War II. Because the causative bacteria are | | | | about eight days. The importance of this discovery |
| passed among humans through contact with body lice, | | | | about the excreta lies in the fact that persons may |
| overcrowding, and conditions which interfere with good | | | | contract the condition who have never had lice upon |
| hygiene (including regular washing of clothing) soldiers | | | | them. The excreta is a dry powder, easily blown about, |
| were predispose to this disease. Currently, homeless | | | | and so apt to reach the clothes. It remains infective for |
| people in the United States are sometimes diagnosed | | | | long periods and even when exposed to sunlight. |
| with this illness. The bacteria are sometimes passed | | | | Water on the other hand seems to diminish its |
| through the bite of an infected tick. | | | | infectivity quickly. |
| The first clinical description occurred during World War | | | | The blood of trench-fever patients is infective to other |
| I (WWI), but the condition has probably caused human | | | | patients when injected into their veins. Thus the |
| infection for centuries. Trench fever was considered | | | | parasite circulates in the blood. The parasite is also in |
| the most prevalent disease among Allied troops | | | | the louse excreta. |
| serving in the trenches during WWI. After WWI, trench | | | | Cause of trench fever: |
| fever became dormant, until it reemerged as an | | | | The cause of trench fever is Bartonella quintana (also |
| epidemic on the eastern European front during World | | | | called Rochalimaea quintana), an unusual rickettsial |
| War II. Since WWII, classic trench fever has almost | | | | organism that multiplies in the gut of the body louse. |
| disappeared as a clinical entity. | | | | Transmission of the rickettsia to people can occur by |
| Trench Fever attacked all armies and until the final | | | | rubbing infected louse feces into abraded (scuffed) |
| year of the war baffled doctors and researchers. | | | | skin or into the conjunctivae (whites of the eyes). |
| Chief symptoms of the disease were headaches, skin | | | | The vector for Trench Fever was, of course the body |
| rashes, inflamed eyes and leg pains. | | | | louse, pediculus corporis which became infected by |
| Despite such wide-ranging symptoms the condition | | | | feeding on the blood of infected soldiers; spread was |
| was not itself particularly serious, with patients | | | | by migration of the louse and infection of the new host |
| recovering after some five or six days although | | | | by the insect bite or by scratching the skin which was |
| prolonged hospitalisation amounting to several weeks | | | | contaminated by the louse excreta. The excreta |
| was common. | | | | remained infective for long periods, weeks or months. |
| Trench fever is a louse-borne disease. The lice do not | | | | The disease is classically a 5-day fever. The onset of |
| become infectious at once after feeding on a | | | | symptoms is sudden with high fever, severe |
| trench-fever patient; there is a latent period of some | | | | headache, back pain and leg pain and a fleeting rash. |
| 8-12 days before they are dangerous to other people. | | | | Recovery takes a month or more. Relapses are |
| Thereafter the excreta of the lice, rather than their | | | | common. |