KHN senior correspondent Markian Hawryluk joined KUNC’s Henry Zimmerman on “Colorado Edition” to discuss his recent story about an outbreak of trench fever, a rare disease carried by body lice.
Public health officials are trying to find a common thread among the four cases identified so far in Colorado. They occurred months apart, and the patients appeared to have no connection other than having been homeless in the Denver area. A scourge during World War I, the illness thrives on hardship. It causes fever, bone pain, headache, vomiting and malaise, potentially leading to life-threatening infection of heart valves.
You can listen to the conversation here.