A $5 million claim has been filed against the city of Los Angeles by an employee who says she caught typhus from a flea in her workplace.
Deputy City Attorney Elizabeth Greenwood accuses Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials of letting trash and human feces collect on streets around City Hall, where she works and says that led to typhus being carried inside by rats and fleas.
She described her symptoms during a recent interview:
"I've had the worst headache I've ever had in my life. I couldn't move my head, I lost my equilibrium. I had a 102-degree fever," she said.
Big claims against the city are often followed by actual lawsuits.
Officials say recent tests found no fleas in City Hall and say no other workers have come down with typhus.
Last month, no traces of the insects have been found in any of the City Hall government buildings, according to a report discussed by the Los Angeles City Council.
The report came after City Council president Herb Wesson had all of the carpets removed from his office late last year due to a rodent and flea problem, and also proposed earlier this year exploring the removal of all carpets in City Hall.
But despite the demonstrated rodent problem, a vendor hired by the city, Cats, said in a report it found no traces of fleas in City Hall, City Hall East, City Hall South, the Metropolitan Communications Dispatch Center and a city child daycare center in the Civic Center after setting over 1,800 monitoring stations.