In the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles, five residents have fallen ill with flea-borne typhus this year, all requiring hospitalization before recovering — a localized flare within a countywide surge that reached a record 220 cases in 2025. The disease, carried invisibly on the bodies of rats, cats, and opossums, reminds us that the boundaries between urban life and the wild are more porous than we imagine. Health officials are calling on residents to tend to the small, unglamorous details — flea treatments, secured trash bins, sealed doorways — as the first line of defense against an an
LA County reports record flea-borne typhus cases as Pico-Union outbreak spreads
Five residents in Pico-Union were hospitalized with flea-borne typhus, though all have since recovered.