The typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County is getting worse...
For awhile now, public health officials have been telling us that the disease was mostly affecting the homeless. But that's just not the case anymore.
Last November, Liz Greenwood was diagnosed with typhus. Liz is a veteran Los Angeles City Hall official, and a Deputy City Attorney that works in City Hall East.
"It felt like somebody was driving railroad stakes through my eyes and out the back of my neck," Greenwood told the NBC4 News I-Team . "Who gets typhus? It's a medieval disease that's caused by trash."
She believes she contracted the disease from fleas in her office. Fleas are known to live on rats, and rats are known to live around the trash bins across the city.
"There are rats in City Hall and City Hall East," she added. "There are enormous rats and their tails are as long as their bodies."
According to the California Department of Public Health, there were 124 typhus cases last year. That's a record amount for Los Angeles County.
So, what is Mayor Yoga Pants doing about the typhus epidemic in his own city?
Last October, he promised to clean up the garbage piles around the city and spend millions to clean up the Skid Row "typhus zone." But the NBC4 News I-Team found that those promises were never kept.
Greenwood and others at City Hall are now calling on Garcetti's office to fumigate City Hall and City Hall East.
"I am concerned about going back to work and getting this again, because I thought I was going to die," Greenwood said.
Below is the statement released from Mayor Garcetti's Office:
"Last fall we directed multiple City departments to begin a coordinated and comprehensive effort to improve cleanliness and protect public health in the Civic Center, including City Hall and City Hall East. In addition to increased trash collection and cleanings, aggressive action has been taken to address pests both in the buildings and in the surrounding outside areas — including abatement treatments and the filling of 60 rodent burrows and 114 tree wells. This work in busy and highly populated public buildings is executed carefully to protect workers and visitors, and the scheduling of extermination activities takes these factors into consideration." -- Vicki Curry, spokeswoman, city of Los Angeles.