Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Typhus

Definition: Typhus

Typhus

Noun

1. Rickettsial disease transmitted by body lice and characterized by skin rash and high fever.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "typhus" was first used: 1785. (references)


Specialty Definition: Typhus

DomainDefinition

Botanical

An infectious disease spread by lice. Treated with Capsicum, Dortenia. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Typhus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This is about the disease Typhus. See Typhus (monster) for the monster in Greek mythology, or typhoid fever for a totally different disease that because of its similar name is often confused with it. Typhus is a name given to several similar diseases caused by Rickettsiae.

There are three types of typhus:

  1. epidemic typhus, also called louse-bourne typhus
  2. endemic typhus, also called flea-borne typhus and murine typhus
  3. scrub typhus, also called chigger-borne typhus

Symptoms common to all forms of typhus are a fever which may reach 39 degrees centigrade and a headache. In tropical countries, typhus is often mistaken for dengue.

Epidemic typhus is so called because it can cause epidemics associated with wars and natural disasters. The causative organism is Rickettsia prowazekii, transmitted by the human body louse (Pediculus humanus corporis). Symptoms are headache, fever, chills, exhaustion, and rash.

Endemic typhus is caused by Rickettsia typhi, transmitted by fleas infesting rats, and, less often, Rickettsia felis, transmitted by fleas carried by cats or opossums. Symptoms include headache, fever, chills, joint pain, nausea, vomiting, and cough.

Scrub typhus is caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi and transmitted by chiggers, which are found in areas of heavy scrub vegetation. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, cough, and gastrointestinal symptoms.

Definitive diagnosis can be obtained by serological testing. Treatment is often with tetracycline or related antibiotics.

There are a number of other diseases caused by Rickettsiae, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever (also known as "Tick typhus"), Rickettsialpox and Boutonneuse fever.

Typhoid fever is a completely different disease caused by various strains of Salmonella, and should not be confused with typhus despite their similar-sounding names.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Typhus."

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Synonym: Typhus

Synonym: typhus fever (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Typhus

English words defined with "typhus": Ataxic fever ♦ Camp fever ♦ genus Rickettsia ♦ Hans Zinsser ♦ Jail fever ♦ Pin-hole pupil, putrid fever ♦ spotted fever ♦ typhoid fever, Typhomania, Typhos, Typhous ♦ Zinsser. (references)
Specialty definitions using "typhus": Amdinocillin ♦ CASSIA TOMENTOSA ♦ Orientia tsutsugamushi ♦ Rickettsia prowazekii, Rickettsia typhi ♦ Trombiculid Mites, Typhus, Endemic Flea-Borne, Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne. (references)
Etymologies containing "typhus": Typhomania. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Typhus" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

French (typhoid, typhus), German (typhoid, typhus), Latin (pride).

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Modern Usage: Typhus

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Typhus, cholera, consumption, bubonic plague. (Monty Python's Flying Circus; writing credit: Douglas Adams; Graham Chapman)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Typhus

DomainTitle

Books

  • Barbelés et typhus (reference)

  • Rats, lice, & history : being a study in biography, which, after twelve preliminary chapters indispensable for the preparation of the lay reader, deals with the life history of typhus fever (reference)

  • Red mites and typhus (reference)

  • Typhus and Doughboys: The American Polish Typhus Relief Expedition, 1919-1921 (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Typhus

Illustrations:
Typhus

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Typhus

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

In 1887, 27 year old Dr. Joseph Kinyoun set up his one person laboratory of hygiene to research cholera and other communicable diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, small pox, typhus, plague and tuberculosis. This was the birth of NIH in a small attic room in the Marine Hospital in the village of Stapleton on Staten Island, New York. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist.

R. norvegicus is known to be a reservoir of bubonic plague (transmitted to man by the bite of a flea or other insect), endemic typhus fever, ratbite fever, and a few other dreaded diseases. Credit: CDC.

The use of DDT increased enormously on a worldwide basis after WWII, because of its effectiveness against the mosquito that spreads malaria and lice that carry typhus. The World Health Organization claims that the use of DDT saved 25 million lives. Credit: CDC.

Polish Typhus Relief Commission : Company of Polish women soldiers. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

[Exterior of the typhus fever ward at Military Hospital No. 45, an isolation hospital, Gungalin]. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

If You Are In This Area : Look Out For Scrub Typhus Fever. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Maybe you had chiggers back home but none like these : This Chigger Carries Scrub Typhus Fever. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

IMPREGNATION gives protection from Scrub Typhus Fever : Be sure your clothing is properly impregnated. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Typhus Fever / Elon Clark. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Typhus vaccine to be bottled. USPHS (United States Public Health Service) Rocky Mountain Laboratory, Hamilton, Montana. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Use in Literature: Typhus

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Typhus is the successor of triumph.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Typhus

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

Walker, D.H. (1990). The role of host factors in the severity of spotted fever and typhus rickettsioses. (references)

Typhus still exists in places where climate, chronic poverty, and social customs prevent regular changes and laundering of clothing. (references)

Burgdorfer, W. (1975). A review of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (tick-borne typhus), its agent, and its tick vectors in the United States. (references)

Human Rights

Rwanda

In April an outbreak of typhus at the prison in Relima resulted in an unknown number of deaths. (references)

Rwanda

There were 708 deaths in prison reported during the year; between 80 and 100 of those deaths resulted from typhus. (references)

Travel

Ghana

Inoculation against typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria and typhus is also recommended. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Typhus

"Typhus" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Typhus" is used about 42 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words		Rank in English
Noun (singular)100%4252,864

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Typhus

Expressions using "typhus": canine tick typhus ♦ endemic typhus ♦ murine typhus ♦ rat typhus ♦ Scrub Typhus ♦ typhus fever ♦ urban typhus. Additional references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Typhus

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

typhus

92

scrub typhus

6

murine typhus

5

typhus fever

4

symptom typhus

3

picture typhus

2

epidemic typhus

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Typhus

Language Translations for "typhus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

tifo (camp fever, jail fever). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏حمى النمشية, ‏التفوئيد. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

тифус (camp fever), коремен тиф (enteric fever, typhoid, typhoid fever). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

发斑伤'. (various references)

   

Czech

  

skvrnitý tyfus. (various references)

   

Danish

  

tyfus. (various references)

   

Dutch

  

tyfus. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

tifo. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

landfarsótt. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

حصبه ای , تیفوسی . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

pilkkukuume. (various references)

   

French

  

typhus (typhoid). (various references)

   

Frisian

  

sinkingssykte. (various references)

   

German

  

Typhus (typhoid). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

τύφοσ. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

טיפוס "ב"רות, טיפוס. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

tífusz (gaol-fever, jail fever, typhoid, typhoid fever). (various references)

   

Icelandic

  

taugaveiki. (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

penyakit tipus (typhoid). (various references)

   

Italian

  

tifo (typhoid fever). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

チップ抵抗 (dwarf, runt, SMT resistor). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

チフス . (various references)

   

Korean 

  

발진티푸스. (various references)

   

Manx

  

taiphys. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

tífes. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

yphustay

   

Portuguese

  

tifo. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

tifos exantematic (camp fever), tifos. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

сыпной тиф (putrid fever, spotted fever, thyphus). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

tifus. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

tifus (typhus fever). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

tyfus (typhoid fever), fläckfeber. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

tifüs (spotted fever), lekelihumma. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

висипний тиф (camp fever, jail fever). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Typhus

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Greek700 BCE-300 CE

typhos. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Typhus

Derivations

Words beginning with "typhus": typhuses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Typhus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Cyphus, Tiphys, Tpus, Trypho, Tyfil, typh, Typha, typhi, typhosa, typus. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Typhus"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "typhus" (pronounced tī"fus)
3-f u samorphous, edifice, interoffice, office, preface, resurface, snafus, subsurface, surface.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Typhus

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "h-p-s-t-u-y"

-1 letter: phuts, pushy, tushy.

-2 letters: huts, hyps, phut, push, puts, shut, syph, thus, tups, tush, yups.

-3 letters: hup, hut, hyp, pht, pus, put, shy, spy, sty, sup, thy, tup, ups, uts, yup.

-4 letters: sh, uh, up, us, ut.

 Words containing the letters "h-p-s-t-u-y"
 

+1 letter: typhous.

 

+2 letters: typhuses.

 

+3 letters: hypocaust.

 

+4 letters: hypocausts, hypotenuse, polyanthus, pyrethrums, suretyship, upholstery.

 

+5 letters: hypotenuses, hypothenuse, suretyships.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern 		5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Quotations: Fiction 		9. Quotations: Non-fiction
10. Usage Frequency
11. Expressions
12. Expressions: Internet 		13. Translations: Modern
14. Translations: Ancient
15. Derivations
16. Rhymes 		17. Anagrams
18. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.