Typhoid Fever
Typhoid Fever
Typhoid Fever
ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the
bacterium Salmonella typhi.[2][3] The bacteria then perforate through the intestinal wall and are
phagocytosed by macrophages. The organism is a Gram-negative short bacillus that is motile due
to its peritrichous flagella. The bacterium grows best at 37 °C/99 °F – human body temperature.
This fever received various names, such as gastric fever, abdominal typhus, infantile
remittant fever, slow fever, nervous fever, pythogenic fever, etc. The name of " typhoid " was
given by Louis in 1829, as a derivative from typhus.
The impact of this disease falls sharply with the application of modern sanitation techniques.
[edit] Cause
[edit] Transmission
Flying insects feeding on feces may occasionally transfer the bacteria through poor hygiene
habits and public sanitation conditions. Public education campaigns encouraging people to wash
their hands after defecating and before handling food are an important component in controlling
spread of the disease. According to statistics from the United States Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), the chlorination of drinking water has led to dramatic decreases in the
transmission of typhoid fever in the U.S.
A person may become an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, suffering no symptoms, but
capable of infecting others. According to the CDC approximately 5% of people who contract
typhoid continue to carry the disease after they recover. The most famous asymptomatic carrier
was Mary Mallon (commonly known as "Typhoid Mary"), a young cook who was responsible
for infecting at least 53 people with typhoid, three of whom died from the disease.[5] Mallon was
the first apparently perfectly healthy person known to be responsible for an "epidemic".
Many carriers of typhoid were locked into an isolation ward never to be released in order to
prevent further typhoid cases. These people often deteriorated mentally, driven mad by the
conditions they lived in.[6]
[edit] Prevention