

(vi) Sometimes, cases of typhoid fever are diagnosed or treated poorly by incompetent healthcare practitioners.Īlso, patients may sometime not be patient enough to be treated properly and fully. v) Even in our various homes, most people carelessly handle foods and drinks without observing the basic personal hygiene principle, like washing of the hands with soap and clean water after toileting and before handling food and drinks. The practice is no longer in vogue these days. iv) In the past, it used to be a routine public health exercise to regularly screen the food handlers in big and small hotels in order to isolate those that are carriers of the bacteria that cause typhoid fever, and such carriers are prevented from handling food until after they have been properly treated. Some food handlers may not properly disinfect or sterilise these vegetables before using them for cooking or for preparing salads. iii) Most of the vegetables we find in our markets may be contaminated with human waste (faeces) either used as manures or not properly disposed of. ii) Some of the companies that produce our sachet water may not observe all the basic hygiene rules that are required by law. Therefore, water for domestic uses is no longer safe for use. i) In many towns and villages, due to bad roads, poor construction works, etc, there are broken pipes that distribute water from the various public water supplies. But if we are to look carefully, we will understand that the reasons for the increased prevalence of this disease may not be farfetched. Many healthcare providers in the country are now becoming worried because of the high incidence of typhoid fever today. The gall bladder and bile ducts are usually the reservoirs of Salmonella typhi infections.Īs soon as the organism (salmonella typhi) is ingested through the contaminated foods and drinks, the bacteria multiply and spread from the intestinal tract, via the bloodstream to different parts of the body, the lungs, kidneys, spleen, liver, gall bladder, bile duct, lymph nodes, bones, brain, etc. Women carriers are more in number than the men. They serve as the reservoirs for the typhoid-causing bacteria and contaminate foods and drink if they handle such without first washing their hands with soap and water, especially after using the toilet. those who recover from the typhoid fever, but continue to carry the organisms in their blood, urine, stool and other body secretions for life. Typhoid has been transmitted congenitally, i.e. It is spread through public water supplies when such is contaminated with human excreta from sewage, as well as eating shellfish from water polluted by raw sewage.

Sometimes, flies may carry the bacteria from faeces to food or drinks. persons carrying the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract). Mode of Transmission The transmission occurs through consumption of foods and beverages contaminated with the faeces (or less commonly urine) of infected persons (food handlers, i.e. However, infants, the elderly and persons with compromised immune systems (HIV/AIDS patients) have a very high risk for developing the severe multi-systemic illnesses associated with typhoid fever. Studies have shown that up to 12.5 million people are infected with Salmonella typhi each year in most underdeveloped countries, where sanitary habits are very poor.Īll age groups are susceptible to enteric fever.

However, the incidence has been found to be very high in most tropical or developing countries. In fact, the disease has been eradicated in most parts of the developed world. Occurrence Typhoid fever was once a global problem, but today the death rate caused by typhoid fever had declined dramatically, partly due to the routine chlorination of drinking water, which started in the early 1900s. Salmonella typhi infects only humans, as animals do not carry the Salmonella typhi. TYPHOID fever (also known as enteric fever) is a life-threatening bacterial infection caused by Salmonella typhi, S.
