Editing Epidemic typhus (section)

=== Poverty and displacement ===
The CDC lists the following areas as active foci of human epidemic typhus: Andean regions of South America, some parts of Africa; on the other hand, the CDC only recognizes an active enzootic cycle in the United States involving [[flying squirrel]]s (CDC). Though epidemic typhus is commonly thought to be restricted to areas of the developing world, serological examination of homeless persons in Houston found evidence for exposure to the bacterial pathogens that cause epidemic typhus and murine typhus.  A study involving 930 homeless people in [[Marseille]], [[France]], found high rates of seroprevalence to ''R. prowazekii'' and a high prevalence of louse-borne infections in the homeless.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Typhus has been increasingly discovered in homeless populations in developed nations. Typhus among homeless populations is especially prevalent as these populations tend to migrate across states and countries, spreading the risk of infection with their movement. The same risk applies to [[refugee]]s, who travel across country lines, often living in close proximity and unable to maintain necessary hygienic standards to avoid being at risk for catching lice possibly infected with typhus.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Because the typhus-infected lice live in clothing, the prevalence of typhus is also affected by weather, humidity, poverty and lack of hygiene. Lice, and therefore typhus, are more prevalent during colder months, especially winter and early spring. In these seasons, people tend to wear multiple layers of clothing, giving lice more places to go unnoticed by their hosts. This is particularly a problem for [[poverty]]-stricken populations as they often do not have multiple sets of clothing, preventing them from practicing good hygiene habits that could prevent louse infestation.<ref name=":1" />

Due to fear of an outbreak of epidemic typhus, the US Government put a typhus quarantine in place in 1917 across the entirety of the [[Mexico–United States border|US-Mexican border]]. Sanitation plants were constructed that required immigrants to be thoroughly inspected and bathed before crossing the border. Those who routinely crossed back and forth across the border for work were required to go through the sanitation process weekly, updating their quarantine card with the date of the next week's sanitation. These sanitation border stations remained active over the next two decades, regardless of the disappearance of the typhus threat. This fear of typhus and resulting quarantine and sanitation protocols dramatically hardened the border between the US and Mexico, fostering scientific and popular prejudices against Mexicans. This ultimately intensified racial tensions and fueled efforts to ban immigrants to the US from the Southern Hemisphere because the [[immigrants]] were associated with the disease.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontier of Better Breeding in Modern America|last=Stern|first=Alexandra Minna|publisher=University of California Press|year=2005|isbn=9780520285064|location=ProQuest ebrary}}</ref>