This about the disease typhoid fever. See Typhus for an unrelated disease with a similar name. Paratyphoid Fever is a related disease but is caused by a different bacteria.
(a.k.a. '''Enteric fever''') is an illness caused by the
Bacterium ''Salmonella'' Typhi . Very common worldwide, it is transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with
Feces from an infected person. The bacteria then multiply in the blood stream of the infected person and are absorbed into the digestive tract and eliminated with the waste.
After infection, symptoms include:
Diagnosis is made by
Blood ,
Bone Marrow or stool cultures and with the
Widal Test (demonstration of salmonella
Antibodies against antigens
O-somatic and
H-flagellar ). In
Epidemic s and less wealthy countries, after excluding
Malaria ,
Dysentery or
Pneumonia , a therapeutic trial with
Chloramphenicol is generally undertaken while awaiting the results of Widal test and blood cultures.
Typhoid fever can be fatal.
Antibiotics , such as
Ampicillin ,
Chloramphenicol ,
Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole , and
Ciprofloxacin , are commonly used to treat typhoid fever in developed countries. Prompt treatment of the disease with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to approximately 1%. Usage of
Ofloxacin along with
Lactobacillus Acidophilus is also recommended.
When untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month. Death occurs in between 10% and 30% of untreated cases.
Vaccines for typhoid fever are available and are advised for persons traveling in regions where the disease is common (especially
Asia ,
Africa and
Latin America ).
Typhim Vi is an intramuscular killed-bacteria vaccination and
Vivotif is an oral live bacteria vaccination, both of which protect against typhoid fever. Neither vaccine is 100% effective against typhoid fever and neither protects against unrelated typhus.
While flying insects feeding on feces may occasionally transfer the bacteria to food being prepared for consumption, the disease is most commonly transmitted through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions. Public education campaigns encouraging people to wash their hands after toileting and before handling food are an important component in controlling spread of the disease.
A person may become an
Asymptomatic Carrier of typhoid fever, suffering no symptoms, but capable of infecting others. According to the
Centers For Disease Control approximately 5% of people who contract typhoid continue to carry the disease after they recover.
The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever, but by no means the most destructive, was
Mary Mallon , also known as
Typhoid Mary . In
1907 she became the first American carrier to be identified and traced. She was a cook in
New York at the beginning of the 20th Century. Some believe she was the source of infection for several hundred people. She is closely associated with fifty cases and five deaths. Public health authorities told Mary to give up working as a cook or have her gall bladder removed. Mary quit her job, but returned later under a
False Name . She was detained and quarantined after another typhoid outbreak. She died of a stroke after 23 years in quarantine.
In 430–426 B.C, a devastating
Plague , which some believe to have been typhoid fever, killed one third of the population of
Athens , including their leader
Pericles . The balance of power shifted from Athens to
Sparta , ending the
Golden Age Of Pericles that had marked Athenian dominance in the ancient world. The cause of the plague had been unknown before a study in 2006 by
Manolis Papagrigorakis of the
University Of Athens which detected
DNA sequences similar to those of the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever. Ancient chronicler
Thucydides also contracted the disease, but survived to tell about the plague.
- ''Gale's Encyclopedia of Medicine'', published by Thomas Gale in 1999, ISBN 0787618683
