Typhoid
A serious and life-threatening disease, typhoid fever is infectious and feverish with symptoms in the digestive system in the second phase of the illness. It is caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi. This disease is transmitted from person to person through food or drinking water, therefore pointing to the fact that typhoid occurs when hygiene and sanitation levels are poor.
Causes: The bacterium Salmonella typhi that causes typhoid fever is found only in human and leads to this illness. When this bacterium passes into the bowel, it passes enters the lining of the intestines to the underlying tissue. If the immune system is not strong enough to withstand the infection, the bacterium will multiply and spread to the bloodstream, after which fever develops.
From here, the bacterium makes its onward journey to the bone marrow, liver and bile ducts, from where they are excreted into the bowel contents. In the second phase of the disease the bacterium passes through the immune tissue of the small intestine, and here’s when small-bowel symptoms manifest themselves. A milder disease than typhoid is paratyphoid fever, caused by Salmonella paratyphi.
Symptoms: Once the infection sets in, the symptoms include high fever ranging from 39°C-40°C (103 °F to 104 °F) that keeps rising slowly, chills, lack of appetite, myalgia, slow heart rate, loss of hair, diarrhea, delusions and confusion, headaches, weakness, constipation, stomach pains, and intestinal perforation or hemorrhage.
How it spreads: When bacteria enters our food or water, typhoid fever results. Some patients suffer a very mild form of typhoid, but with others, the sickness is long-term. The bacteria first multiply in the gallbladder, bile ducts or liver and then pass into the bowel. They survive for weeks in water or dried sewage.
Diagnosis: Typhoid is diagnosed by doing blood, bone marrow or stool cultures and with the Widal test which detects salmonella antibodies against antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar.
Treatment: Typhoid fever is known to be fatal, so antibiotics, such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, are used to treat typhoid fever. Antibiotics reduce the chances of death to about 1%.
Left untreated, typhoid fever stays for three weeks to a month, with death in 10-30% cases. As an antidote, vaccines for typhoid fever should be taken, such as Typhim Vi. This is an intramuscular killed-bacteria vaccination while Vivotif is an oral live bacteria vaccination. It offers protection from typhoid in the first two weeks after the injection is taken and lasts two years. Any booster doses should be given at two-year intervals. Children, about two years of age, can also be given this vaccine.
However, neither vaccine is 100% effective against typhoid fever. If you take four capsules of Vivotif every alternate day over one week, it will act against stomach acid so that it continues to be active when it reaches the intestine and immunity develops.
The oral vaccine can either be given as a first-time dose or a booster dose. This protects you from typhoid for five years, after which you will need another booster dose if you travel once more. However, the oral vaccine is not meant for kids less than six years of age.
Typhoid, if detected in time, is eminently curable, so seek good professional care if ever you get its symptoms.