Trench fever

[Little_Girl]

Trench fever is a louse-borne disease caused by the gram-negative bacterium Bartonella quintana and observed originally in military populations during World Wars I and II. Symptoms are an acute, recurring febrile illness, occasionally with a rash. Diagnosis is by blood culture. Treatment is with a macrolide or doxycycline .
(See also Overview of Bartonella Infections.)
Humans are the only reservoir of this Bartonella infection. B. quintana is transmitted to humans when feces from infected lice are rubbed into abraded skin or the conjunctiva.
Trench fever is endemic in Mexico, Tunisia, Eritrea, Poland, and the former Soviet Union and is reappearing in the homeless population in the US.