Health officials are warning residents to take precautions, including keeping pets up to date on flea medication, after a record number of flea-borne typhus cases were reported in Los Angeles County over the past year.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said 220 flea-borne typhus cases were reported in the county in 2025, the highest on record. The department investigated three outbreaks in 2025, including one in Santa Monica.

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The county health department’s report indicates that California also had the highest number of flea-borne typhus cases in the modern era at 277. (The California Department of Public Health, whose Jan. 21 report noted that LA County had 165 flea-borne typhus cases in 2025, has not confirmed this number.) That’s more than double the number from 2016 when counting suspect, probable and confirmed cases. Mandatory electronic reporting for the disease started in 2011, and the vast majority of cases in California are usually reported in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Typhus is a disease caused........

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