Case Study: Typhoid Fever

I: Introduction
In year 2000, the typhoid fever caused an estimation of 21.7 million illnesses and
217,000 deaths, most often occurs in children and young adults between 5 and 19 years old. In
2013, it resulted in about 161,000 deaths – down from 181,000 in 1990, Infants, children and
adolescents in south-central and Southeast Asia experience the greatest burden illness as the
outbreaks of the typhoid fever are frequently reported from sub-Saharan Africa and countries in
Southeast Asia.
According to the information of Centers for Disease control and prevention, Typhoid fever is a
life-threatening disease that caused by Salmonella serotype Typhi and if left untreated, it will
cause serious damage to the body and possibly in some cases death, also this disease will only
affect on humans as the bacteria is incapable of transmitting from human to animals.

II: Modes of Transmission

There are ways that the typhoid fever bacteria can be spread on humans such as eating a
sewage contamination food or drinking water, Person-to-Person contact and possibly indirect
contact via interacting objects that the person who is on a state of shedding the bacteria but not
fully recovered from it can become infected as they are a possible carrier of the said disease.
It is also applied the indirect contact via animal wastes as the animals can carry the Salmonella
Serotype Typhi, the bacteria can only effect on humans and not on animals as the bacteria is not
capable of passing the disease from humans to animals by any means.
The transmission of the disease is also possible in food supply besides on water as the fertilizer
used for crops and other plants that can supply food can also be contaminated such as using the
human feces as a fertilizer for the plants but it can also the said fertilizer has been mixed with the
ones that are possible containing the Typhoid bacteria and spread to the other crops, thus
transmitting the Typhoid Fever disease by human consumption.

III: Treatments and Prevention

There are treatments that are available to cure or prevent the bacteria from manifesting
the disease, giving the patients that have the disease some resistance or immunity against the
Typhoid fever bacteria.
Treatments and preventions such as:
 Antibiotics prescribed by a doctor
 Doctor’s prescription and advice
  Vaccinated against Typhoid fever bacteria
 Practice safe eating and drinking habits
 Always practicing good hygiene and hand-washing

Finalization/Conclusion:
As the research shows, the Typhoid Fever can be also a dangerous disease if left
untreated as this disease can claim the lives of many children even young adults, Prevention is
the most effective way of reducing or stopping the spread of the disease than taking reliance on
treatments and cure as the antibacterial and antibiotics medicine won’t last much as the bacteria
itself can develop resistance, making ineffective.
It is also showing that practicing a good hygiene will also prevents the bacteria to be passed on to
other people, thus, reducing the spread and infection rate, as well as reducing the possible
mortality rate that has caused by the disease.

As a Medical Student:
As a Medical student, this information about this disease will help me enlighten my
knowledge as it can help to save lives of many as well as in the community, also this information
is helpful in many ways to conduct a prevention program that the community needs and to teach
everyone the right way of taking care of themselves and to follow the proper way of using the
hygiene.

References:
- https://www.cdc.gov/typhoid-fever/prevention.html
- https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/typhoidfever/en/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever
- https://www.cdc.gov/typhoid-fever/typhoid-vaccination.html