Typhus on Maui growing with mice

Associated Press

LAHAINA, Maui — An increase in field mice on Maui may have contributed to recent murine typhus cases, state health officials said.

Five cases of the flulike disease have been confirmed in Hawai'i this year, including four on Maui — double that island's figure from last year. The other case was on Kaua'i, officials said.

Federal and state health officials are investigating a sixth case of typhus in Lahaina, where a resident tested positive and showed unusually severe symptoms.

Murine typhus is usually spread to humans by a flea that has bitten a rodent carrying Rickettsia typhi. The disease causes body aches, headaches, rash and fever.

Paul Kitsutani, a medical officer for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the numbers are not enough to be considered an epidemic.

"Right now there is no typhus epidemic," he said. "We have typhus every year."

The state has averaged about five cases a year in the past decade. Maui had two confirmed cases last year, Kitsutani said.

Mice reproduced rapidly during last winter's rains, and a drier summer has diminished the food supply upland and forced them to seek food and water in residential and commercial areas, particularly Kihei and Lahaina.

State vector control crews that spent much of the year trying to eliminate mosquitoes around Hana after a dengue fever outbreak are now trying to control mice.

State health officials are developing information for the public on how to avoid typhus, Kitsutani said.

Maui's last major field mice infestation was in 1993.