Typhoid fever is caused by a bacteria Salmonella typhi and is transmitted through the ingestion of food or drink contaminated by the faeces or urine of infected people, said Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee Dr K K Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India and MTNL Perfect Health Mela. Flying insects feeding on faeces may occasionally transfer the bacteria through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions.
Though the cases occur round the year, cases are more common in summer and rainy seasons.
Symptoms usually develop 1–3 weeks after exposure, and may be mild or severe. They include high fever, malaise, headache, constipation or diarrhea and enlarged spleen and liver. Healthy carrier state may follow acute illness. It can be treated with antibiotics. However, resistance to common antibiotics is widespread. Healthy carriers should be excluded from handling food.
1. Sanitation and hygiene are the critical measures that can be taken to prevent typhoid.
2. Typhoid does not affect animals and therefore transmission is only from human to human.
3. Typhoid can only spread in environments where human faeces or urine are able to come into contact with food or drinking water.
4. Careful food preparation and washing of hands are crucial to preventing typhoid.
5. Typhoid fever in most cases is not fatal.
6. Prompt treatment of the disease with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to approximately 1%.
7. When untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month.
8. Resistance to common antibiotics is now common
9. Typhoid that is resistant to common antibiotics is known as multidrug-resistant typhoid (MDR typhoid).
10. Ciprofloxacin resistance is an increasing problem, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia .
11. Azithromycin is a new drug for drug-resistant typhoid.
12. Typhoid vaccine taken every three years is the best preventive approach.
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