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The epidemic of typhus in Los Angeles, California has spread from homeless encampments to City Hall. Local authorities say they are trying to address the problem, but critics point to mountains of trash lining the streets.<\/p>\n
Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood was diagnosed with typhus in November, after complaining about having headaches and high fever, she told KNBC on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like somebody was driving railroad stakes through my eyes and out the back of my neck,\u201d<\/em> Greenwood said. \u201cWho gets typhus? It’s a medieval disease that’s caused by trash.\u201d<\/em> Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood tells NBC4 she was diagnosed with typhus in November, after experiencing high fevers and excruciating headaches. https:\/\/t.co\/rdRHbCpJ8p<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) February 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Last year the Los Angeles County registered a record 124 cases of typhus, KNBC reported citing the California Department of Public Health. One of them was Greenwood, who believes she caught the disease from fleas that made their way into her office.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are rats in City Hall and City Hall East,\u201d <\/em>she said. \u201cThere are enormous rats and their tails are as long as their bodies.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Rats often carry fleas, and tend to live in garbage piles that have accumulated across Los Angeles as the city\u2019s homeless population<\/a> continues to grow uncontrollably<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back in October, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to clean up the trash piles as part of an effort to curb the spread of typhus, and allocated millions of dollars for sanitation of streets in the Skid Row neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can’t solve it (the typhus epidemic) until you hit the cause,\u201d<\/em> Estela Lopez of the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District told KNBC, \u201cand the cause of it is that you still have these mountains of trash.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The city has already fumigated several police offices, but the City Hall is apparently still on the to-do list.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work in busy and highly populated public buildings is executed carefully to protect workers and visitors, and the scheduling of extermination activities takes these factors into consideration,\u201d<\/em> city spokeswoman Vicki Curry said in a statement.<\/p>\n California is the most populous US state, and has a gross domestic product estimated at $2.9 trillion — ranking as the fifth-largest economy in the world, right behind Germany. Los Angeles County has over 10 million inhabitants as of 2017.<\/p>\n Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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