Typhoid fever can affect many organs of the body once it infects the patient. It can even kill if there is a lack of treatment. This bacterial infection has existed for millennia, and it can still pose a threat. About 400 cases of infection with typhoid fever occur every year in the US, and most of them appear after traveling abroad.
The Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S Typhi) bacterium is responsible for causing typhoid fever. ScienceAlert now raises awareness that a new study involving the genome sequencing of some strains of S Typhi found in a few Asian countries indicates that the bacterium is showing high resistance to antibiotics, the only way to treat typhoid fever.
Resistance against fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins
Not only usual antibiotics are useless against XDR Typhi. Newer antibiotics find it more and more difficult to treat the disease, such as fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins.
Researchers fear a rapid spread of new strains of the disease. Here’s what Jason Andrews, an infectious disease specialist from Stanford University, has to say, as ScienceAlert quotes:
The speed at which highly-resistant strains of S. Typhi have emerged and spread in recent years is a real cause for concern, and highlights the need to urgently expand prevention measures, particularly in countries at greatest risk.
The usual symptoms of typhoid fever, as nhs.uk reveals, are:
- A high and persistent temperature that will even increase gradually every day
- General pains and aches
- Headaches
- Constipation
- Cough
- Extreme fatigue
As you can conclude for yourself, these symptoms make typhoid fever easily confusable with the flu. However, the symptoms are likely to occur at least a week and a maximum of two weeks after somebody becomes infected.
The new research was published in The Lancet Microbe.
