What is the prognosis for typhus?
The prognosis depends on what types of complications an individual patient experiences. While children usually recover well from epidemic typhus, older adults may have as much as a 60% death rate without treatment. Brill-Zinsser, on the other hand, carries no threat of death. People usually recover uneventfully from endemic typhus, although the elderly, those with other medical problems, or people mistakenly treated with sulfa drugs may have a 1% death rate from the illness. Scrub typhus responds well to appropriate treatment, but untreated patients have a death rate of about 7%. The relatively high death rate from untreated typhus is one reason why some researchers are concerned that its causative organisms might be used in the future as agents of bioterrorism. Source: The Gale Group. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3rd ed.
