CHENNAI: What was once reported predominantly during the rainy season, typhoid fever cases are now being reported throughout the year nowadays. Eating food from eateries, poor hand hygiene, water contamination, and poor sanitation are the reasons for this change, say doctors. Typhoid is an endemic, infectious disease caused by salmonella typhi, usually through ingestion of contaminated food or water. The symptoms of typhoid are prolonged fever, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, constipation or diarrhoea, say doctors.
According to WHO, clinical severity varies and severe cases may lead to serious complications or even death. An estimated ninety lakh cases and 1.1 lakh typhoid-related deaths occur annually worldwide (2019 estimates).
A similar but less severe disease, paratyphoid fever, is caused by salmonella paratyphi, said Dr K Kolandaswamy, public health expert.
Right diagnosis of typhoid is important to start the treatment early. Since eating habits of people have changed and people are eating more food from eateries and outside, cases are being seen throughout the year. Hand hygiene is also another challenge. “Washing hands after use of the toilet is very important and frequent handwashing should be encouraged. Identifying the cases and sources of infection are important to control the spread of the disease. Also, good testing facilities are important to detect the cases accurately,” said Kolandaswamy.
Vaccines are available for typhoid as children and even adults can get vaccinated. “Vaccination will provide 75-80 % of protection. As people’s eating habits have changed, doctors are seeing typhoid cases throughout the year,” said Dr Janani Sankar, medical director of Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust Hospital, Chennai. Typhoid cases can be treated as out-patient or in-patient depending on the severity. They are treated with antibiotics either orally or via intravenous medication. “My advice to parents is they should stop children from eating outside.
Freshly home cooked food is the best option. Also, hand hygiene should be followed,” said Dr Janani.