Bacterial diseases carried by fleas include murine or endemic typhus and bubonic plague. Malaria, typhus and cholera were rampant. The inmates suffered severely from cholera and typhus epidemics. Bazalgette's sewers also decreased the incidence of typhus and typhoid epidemics. Diseases such as typhus or cholera appeared very quickly. Wartime epidemics, especially that of typhus and cholera, claimed thousands of lives. A plague of epidemic typhus decimated the city's inhabitants. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus. Endemic typhus is highly treatable with antibiotics. The region was plagued by widespread diseases including trachoma and typhus. Looters raided the ruins and survivors faced concerns of typhus and yellow fever. In addition, there was fear of a recurrence of the typhus outbreak. These diseases, together with typhus and yellow fever, had a major impact on Maya populations. He returned to Scotland, but in an epidemic of typhus, became ill. Only a few areas of epidemic typhus exist today.