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.