Rat-infested garbage left uncollected by the city of Los Angeles is reportedly fueling fear about a typhoid epidemic in the wake of a record number of 2018 cases of flea-borne typhus.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the city's most notorious trash pile in downtown Los Angeles remains a magnet for rats — months after a cleanup.
"I can't walk down the street without thinking that a flea could jump on me," Estela Lopez, who represents business owners in the downtown area, told the affiliate.
Infectious disease specialist Jeffrey Klausner of UCLA told the news outlet the situation needs immediate attention.
"Trash and food waste attracts rats," he told the news outlet. "It does pose a public health risk," adding a too-large rat population can possibly lead to the spread of salmonella strains and bubonic plague.
According to NBC Los Angeles, between 2013 and 2017, Los Angeles County residents reported a yearly average of nearly 60 cases — twice as many the number reported in the previous five years.
Last year, a record 124 cases were reported in L.A. County, the news outlet reported.
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