ORPHA:83314
Epidemic typhus
Publications
1,719
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
888
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A Rickettsial disease characterized by malaise and vague symptoms before the onset of high fever, headache, severe myalgias and less commonly petechial rash on the trunk and limbs, nausea, vomiting, coughing and pneumonia. Most patients also have some central nervous system disturbances, such as meningeal irritation, confusion, drowsiness, , coma, and hearing loss.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0019362
- UMLS:C0041473
- NCIT:C84689
Additional Mondo synonyms (3)
epidemic louse-borne typhus · epidemic typhus · epidemic typhus fever
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No specific-condition interventional trial, but broader-category trials exist — discuss eligibility with a clinician.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
1,719 matched papers (457 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPartial
None under the specific name; 4 for broader category typhus
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
1,719
1,719 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
1,719 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
457 in the last 10 years · low confidence
Phrase hits: 1,719 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
888
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Richards AL7 papers · 2026
Viral and Rickettsial Diseases Department, Infectious Diseases Directorate, Naval Medical Research Command, Silver Spring, MD, United States.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Newton PN6 papers · 2026
Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Trust Research Unit (LOMWRU), Microbiology Laboratory, Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Anstead GM4 papers · 2024
Medical Service, South Texas Veterans Health Care System and Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Blacksell SD4 papers · 2026
Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Camden, NSW, Australia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Blanton LS4 papers · 2024
Department of Internal Medicine-Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06
- 07Day NPJ4 papers · 2026
Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Faccini-Martínez ÁA4 papers · 2023
Servicio de Infectología, Hospital Militar Central, Bogotá 110110, Colombia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Kang JS4 papers · 2026
Department of Microbiology, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present). 4 trials are registered for typhus, the broader category — shown separately because they may or may not enrol this specific subtype.
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
low confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
4 interventional trials matched typhus, the broader category — listed below. Those studies are not counted in the condition-specific total.
Broader category: typhus
4
Interventional trials for the parent category, exclusive of NCT IDs already counted above. Eligibility for this subtype is not guaranteed.
Worth raising with a clinician. How we count trials.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Epidemic typhus" OR "epidemic louse-borne typhus" OR "epidemic typhus fever"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Epidemic typhus" OR "epidemic louse-borne typhus" OR "epidemic typhus fever"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Parent-category trials query:
"typhus"
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (1719) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity
Ingested 2026-07-27T02:33:47.141Z