Trench fever, rare disease that affected WWI soldiers, found in Canada

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A homeless camp, set up in the summer of 2020, lines a busy Montreal boulevard on November 18, 2020. (Photo by ERIC THOMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

NEW YORK - A potentially deadly disease that was known as trench fever during World War I is turning up in homeless people in Canada.

There have been infections among 4 patients in Winnipeg according to a new paper published in a leading medical journal.

Although B. quintana is notorious for causing disease in the First World War, outbreaks of trench fever have recently occurred in urban populations experiencing homelessness.  It is transmitted by body lice.

Trench fever can cause fever, headache, and fatigue.  Left untreated, it can become deadly.

In a recent case cited in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), a 48-year-old man turned up in an emergency room with chest pain and shortness of breath that was eventually diagnosed with trench fever.  The man needed 6 weeks of treatment to recover.

The doctors who authored the paper said that cases could remain undiagnosed because it is rare and doctors have to run specific blood tests to uncover the condition.