typhus

They can also help spread murine typhus and food-borne germs like salmonella.

But when supplies ran low and deadly epidemics of yellow fever, cholera, and typhus swept through the besieged town, some of the sick, starving refugees were forced out.

Flea-borne typhus was tied to three deaths in Los Angeles County last year amid a rise in reported cases of the illness, according to a report released Thursday.

From its base in Japanese-controlled Harbin in China, Unit 731 and related units injected war prisoners with typhus, cholera and other diseases as research into germ warfare, according to historians and former unit members.

Before the squadron even got across the Atlantic Ocean, though, typhus hit.