Overview

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria. Typhoid fever is rare in countries of industrialization. However, in the developing world, it remains a serious health threat, especially for children. This blog will help you to know abut the symptoms of the Typhoid, its causes, risk factor and prevention ideas.

Typhoid fever spreads through contaminated food and water or through close contact with an infected. Symptoms usually include a high fever, headache, stomach pain, and either constipation or diarrhoea.

Most people with typhoid fever feel better within a couple of days of starting antibiotic treatment, although a small number of them may die of complications. Typhoid fever Vaccines are available, but they are only partially successful. Vaccines usually are reserved for anyone who may be susceptible to the disease or is travelling to places where typhoid fever is common.

Symptoms ofTyphoid

Signs and symptoms are likely to gradually develop sometimes one to four weeks after exposure to the disease.

Early illness

If signs and symptoms occur, you are likely to experience:

Fever that starts low and rises regularly, probably hitting as high as 104 F

• Headache
• Exhaustion and fatigue
• Body pain
• Vomiting
• Dry cough
• Appetite and weight loss
• Stomach pain
• Diarrhoea or constipation
• Rash
• Severely swollen abdomen

Read Also:Malaria-Overview, Symptoms, Causes, Prevention And Treatment

Later disease

If you are not treated, you may:

• Become delirious
• Lie motionless and exhausted with your eyes half-closed in what’s known as the typhoid condition

Moreover, life-threatening complications frequently occur at this time.

For certain cases, signs and symptoms will return up to three weeks after the fever has subsided.

When to see a doctor

If you think you have typhoid fever See a doctor immediately. If you are from the USA and get ill when travelling in abroad, call the U.S. Consulate on physician list. Better yet, find out in advance about medical treatment in the places you are going to visit, and include a list of suggested doctors name and phone numbers and addresses.

If after you return home you experience signs and symptoms, consider seeing a doctor who focused on foreign travel medicine or infectious diseases. A specialist can identify and treat your disease faster than a physician who is not familiar with these areas.

Read Also:Valley Fever – Symptoms, Prevention And Treatment

Causes of Typhoid

Typhoid fever is caused by virulent bacteria called Salmonella typhi. While they are related, Salmonella typhi and the bacteria responsible for salmonellosis, another severe intestinal infection, are not the same.

Risk factors of Typhoid

Typhoid fever remains a major global threat especially in the developing world which affects an estimated 27 million people or more every year. The disease is established in India, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America and many other regions.

Worldwide, while they usually have milder symptoms than adults do. Children are at highest risk of developing the disease.

• If you live in a country where typhoid fever is not common, you are at excessed risk if you:
• Work in or travel to areas where typhoid fever is at high risk
• Work as a clinical microbiologist who treats Salmonella typhi bacteria
• Have close contact with anyone who is infected or has recently been infected with typhoid fever
• Drink water contaminated by sewage containing Salmonella typhi

Complications

Many other possible complications include:

• Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis)
• Pneumonia
• Inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis)
• Kidney or bladder infections
• Infection and inflammation of the membranes and fluid surrounding your brain and spinal cord (meningitis)
• Psychiatric problems, such as delirium, hallucinations and paranoid psychosis

With prompt treatment, nearly all people in industrialized nations recover from typhoid fever. Without treatment, many people cannot survive complications of the illness without medication.

Read Also:Swine Flu: Overview, Causes, Symptoms And Prevention

Prevention Tips of Typhoid

In many developing nations, the public health goals that can help prevent and control typhoid fever — safe drinking water, improved sanitation and adequate medical care — may be difficult to achieve. For that reason, some experts suggest that the only way to control this fever is to vaccinate high-risk populations.

• Wash your hands: The best way to handle infection is frequent hand-washing in warm water with soap. Wash before eating or cooking food and after use of the toilet. Carry a hand sanitizer based on alcohol for times when water is not available.

• Avoid drinking untreated water: Contaminated drinking water is a particular problem in areas where typhoid fever is endemic. For that purpose, drink only bottled water or canned or bottled carbonated beverages, wine and beer. Carbonated bottled water is healthier than uncarbonated bottled water is.
• Ask non-ice beverages: Use bottled water to brush your teeth, and try not to swallow water in the shower.
• Avoid raw fruits and vegetables: Because the raw product may have been washed in unsafe water, avoid fruits and vegetables, especially lettuce that you can’t peel. To be absolutely safe, you may want to avoid raw foods entirely, to be healthy.
• Pick hot foods: Avoid food that is kept at room temperature, or served. Steamed hot foods are best. And while there is no guarantee that meals served at the finest restaurants are safe, it is better to avoid food from street vendors — it is more likely to be contaminated.

Prevent infecting others

If you’re recovering from typhoid fever, these measures can help keep others safe:

• Take your antibiotics: Follow directions from your doctor to take your antibiotics, and make sure to complete the whole prescription.
• Wash your hands often: It is the single most important thing you can do to keep from spreading the infection to others. Use warm, soapy water and scrub thoroughly, particularly before eating and after using the toilet for at least 40 seconds
• Avoid handling food: Stop cooking food for others until the doctor tells you are not infectious any longer. If you are working in the food service industry or a health care facility, you will not be allowed to return to work until tests prove that you are no longer shedding typhoid bacteria.