If you live in Nigeria, chances are you have been treated for typhoid, at least once.
Infact for the ones who are experts in self diagnosis and medication, once they have a headache, the next stop is at the nearest chemist for some anti malaria and typhoid medicine.
However not many people even know what typhoid is all about and are just swallowing antibiotics unnecessarily. Sadly some healthcare professionals who should know better also encourage this practice.
So now a few things you need to know before you even think about treating typhoid (again)
Typhoid fever is an acute illness associated with fever caused by the Salmonella typhi bacteria.
The main route of spread is through contaminated food and water, hence typhoid fever is most common in parts of the world that have poor sanitation and limited access to clean water e.g most parts of Nigeria.
Worldwide, children are thought to be most at risk of developing typhoid fever. This is likely due to the fact that their immune system (the body’s natural defense against infection and illness) is still developing. However, children with typhoid fever tend to have milder symptoms than adults.
Signs and symptoms that may cause you to start thinking about typhoid fever include:
- a high temperature that can reach 39-40C (103-104F)
- stomach pain
- headache
- constipation or diarrhoea
After getting into the body through contaminated food or water, the Salmonella bacteria invade the small intestine and enter the bloodstream temporarily. Then they are carried by white blood cells in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow, where they multiply and reenter the bloodstream. This is what causes symptoms to develop. Bacteria invade the gallbladder, biliary system, and the lymphatic tissue of the bowel. Here, they multiply in high numbers. Because typhoid is primarily an illness of the gastrointestinal system, stomach upset is one of the main symptoms, along with fever. So if you are not having any stomach related symptoms, chances are you may not really have typhoid.
How Is Typhoid Fever Diagnosed?
The only way to know for sure if an illness is typhoid fever is to have samples of stool or blood tested for the presence of Salmonella Typhi. The bacteria pass into the intestinal tract and can be identified in stool samples. However i’m sure no one reading this has ever had their stool tested for typhoid. The most common test for typhoid here it the Widal test, which checks for antibodies against Salmonella antigens.
The Widal test is time-consuming, and prone to significant false positive results. It may be also falsely negative in the early course of illness. So even if you go to a lab and get the test done, it is best to show it to a doctor to interpret it for you.
For people living in places where typhoid is common, it is not unusual to have people who are chronic carriers and for such people the widal test may be positive even when there is no active illness.
The very unfortunate thing about treating typhoid irresponsibly is that the medication used to treat for typhoid are antibiotics and using them anyhow only promotes antibiotic resistance such that when your body has genuine need for them, the same antibiotics won’t work because your body is already used to them. Resistance to multiple antibiotics is increasing among Salmonella that cause typhoid fever, also the emergence of multidrug-resistance has complicated treatment of infections.
If you have a high fever and feel very ill, see a doctor immediately for proper testing and diagnosis.
As much as it’s not good to just treat for typhoid because you feel unwell, it’s also important to be sure what exactly the problem is because If typhoid fever isn’t treated, the symptoms will continue to get worse over the following weeks and the risk of developing potentially fatal complications will increase.
