A disease borne by body lice that was first recognized
in the trenches of World War I, when it is estimated to have affected more than
a million people in Russia and on the fronts in Europe. Trench fever was again a
major problem in the military in World War II and is seen endemically in Mexico,
Africa, E. Europe, and elsewhere.
Urban trench fever occurs among the homeless people and people with alcoholism
today. Outbreaks have been documented, for example, in Seattle, Baltimore (among
injection-drug users), Marseilles (France) and Burundi.
The cause of trench fever is Bartonella quintana (also called Rochalimaea quintana),
an unusual rickettsial organism that multiplies in the gut of the body louse. Transmission
of the rickettsia to people can occur by rubbing infected louse feces into abraded
(scuffed) skin or into the conjunctivae (whites of the eyes).
The disease is classically a 5-day fever. The onset of symptoms is sudden with
high fever, severe headache, back pain and leg pain and a fleeting rash.
Recovery takes a month or more. Relapses are common.
It is now clear, that at least in its urban form among the homeless, trench fever
can be associated with nonspecific symptoms or no symptoms (New England Journal
of Medicine 340: 184-189, 1999).
The organism (B. quintana) that causes trench fever also has been found responsible
for a disease called bacillary angiomatosis in people infected with HIV and for
infection of the heart and great vessels (endocarditis) with bloodstream infection.
Trench fever is also called Wolhynia fever, shin bone fever, quintan fever, five-day
fever, Meuse fever, His' disease, His-Werner disease, Werner-His disease.
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