What is typhoid fever?
What are its causes and symptoms?
Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever (occurring or relating to the intestines) is a type of bacterial infection caused by Salmonella typhi, a Gramnegative bacterium. The infection is commonly spread through contaminated water or food. With the advancement of public health and hygiene, typhoid fever has disappeared from many developed countries; however, it still is endemic in many developing or low-income countries. According to the CDC, around 21.6 million typhoid cases are reported annually with 1001000 cases per one lakh population. Typhoid is prevalent in Latin America and Africa, and children under five years of age are at higher risk of the condition. In this article, we will discuss typhoid fever and its related causes, symptoms, complications, diagnosis, treatments and prevention. Take a look.
Causes of Typhoid fever
The main causative bacteria of typhoid fever are from the genus Salmonella: Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi. These two typhoidal salmonellae are known to cause serious gastrointestinal complications in humans when ingested, while non-typhoidal salmonella is limited to gastroenteritis and do not cause severe symptoms.
The Salmonella bacterium gets transmitted to the human body by the faecal-oral route through:
When a person comes in direct contact with any of the aforementioned mode of transmission, they get infected by the bacteria and themselves becomes a chronic carrier.
Though their symptoms get treated with effective antibiotics, they continue to harbour the bacteria for a long time, remaining asymptomatic, and shed them in their faeces and urine, which again, infect others.
Typhoid is a contagious infection that gets spread from an infected person to healthy adults as humans are the only host to Salmonella bacteria. The major sources of salmonella include eggs, poultry and turtles (rarely).
The gut microbiota is naturally protective against various infections. However, conditions such as malnutrition and the use of certain antibiotics may disrupt their normal flora and amplify the risk of infections. The illness is common in areas where there are overcrowding, poor sanitation and social chaos.