Most people have never heard of murine typhus. Doctors in Galveston, Texas, are asking them to pay attention.
A study published in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, Volume 32, Number 6 (June 2026) by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston analyzed five years of murine typhus cases and found a disease that is sicker and more dangerous than many clinicians expect. Lead author Matthew Pickich and colleagues — Puneet Singh, Efstathia Polychronopoulou, Shawn P. Nishi, Lucas S. Blanton, and Alexander G. Duarte — examined 149 confirmed and probable murine typhus cases in Galveston from 2019 to 2023.