‘Superbug’ typhoid must be monitored

LONDON: An antibiotic-resistant “superbug” strain of typhoid fever has spread globally, driven by a single family of the bacteria, called H58, according to the findings of an international study.

The research, involving about 74 scientists in almost two dozen countries, is one of the most comprehensive sets of genetic data on a human infectious agent and paints a worrying scene of an “everincreasing public health threat”, they said.

Typhoid is contracted by consuming contaminated matter and symptoms include nausea, fever, abdominal pain and pink spots on the chest. Untreated, the disease can lead to complications in the gut and head, which may prove fatal in up to 20% of patients.

Vaccines are available – although, owing to limited cost-effectiveness, not widely used in poorer countries – and regular strains of the infection can be treated with antibiotic drugs. But this study found that the H58 “superbug” version, which is resistant to multiple types of antibiotics, is now becoming dominant.

“H58 is displacing other typhoid strains, completely transforming the genetic architecture of the disease and creating a previously under-appreciated and ongoing epidemic,” the researchers said.

Vanessa Wong, of Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, who was part of the international team, said that since typhoid affected about 30 million people a year, global surveillance was critical to trying to contain it. – Reuters