Typhoid News
Rainproof your health
- After weeks of sweltering heat, the city finally received it’s first monsoon showers this week, signaling the onset of the season in the city. K. S. Hosalikar, Director General of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai, took to Twitter to officially announce the commencement of the season.
- However, it seems that Mumbaikars will have to wait a few more days for heavy showers to hit, as Bishwambhar Singh, director, regional meteorological center, IMD, reveals that a downpour could be expected only after another two to three days.
- While it may not be raining with a vengeance yet, the unfortunate by-product of the season is already making its presence felt – diseases. “As soon as there is a transition from summer to monsoon, you start getting diseases like hepatitis, gastroenteritis, typhoid, malaria, dengue, and leptospirosis.”
Access to basic sanitation still lagging for millions in East and Southern Africa
- Despite progress towards ensuring basic sanitation services for all, access still eludes many.
- According to recent estimates, over half of the global population – or 4.2 billion people across the world – lack safe sanitation, 701 million use unimproved facilities, and 673 million people practice open defecation.
- Without safe toilets and waste management systems, diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio and diarrhea can spread easily. UNICEF is committed to achieving equitable access to adequate sanitation and hygiene for all and to end open defecation by 2030.
- As part of its pledge to support 60 million people to gain access to at least basic sanitation services by 2021, UNICEF is gathering development partners, private sector, financial institutions, and government representatives on 25-26 June in Nairobi (Kenya) to accelerate market-based solutions for making toilets and sanitation services more affordable and accessible for households in the East and Southern Africa region.
The doctor who beat Ebola — and inspires other survivors to care for the sick
- At first, Maurice Kakule Mutsunga suspected that the woman had malaria or typhoid: she was feverish and fatigued, and had been admitted to the hospital in Mangina in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with terrible headaches and abdominal pain. Then blood began to drip from her nose.
- The woman, who died from her illness, likely had Ebola. And Kakule, a doctor who treated her in early July 2018, soon developed similar symptoms — only a few weeks before the DRC government declared an outbreak of the virus. He’s now among the minority of people who have beaten Ebola during this outbreak.
- Only about 620 of the more than 2,200 people who have contracted the virus have been cured, according to the DRC government. These survivors, who are protected from reinfection, are helping to curb the outbreak. They care for children in the throes of the disease, transport the sick to hospital, and fight fear and mistrust by telling their stories.
A migrant boy was treated in Utah for severe typhoid fever after being held in a detention center on the border
- A migrant child who had been in a detention center on the U.S. border was treated for a severe case of typhoid fever when he arrived in Utah last month.
- “He developed it badly enough that he needed to be hospitalized,” said Angela Dunn, a physician and the state’s epidemiologist. “Why it was so bad when he got to us is a whole other can of worms.”
- The boy, a minor whose age Dunn could not disclose, left the immigration holding center and came to Utah by bus to stay with family here. When he got to the state, he was vomiting and had severe stomach pain — which typically come in the later stages of the disease.
1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water – UNICEF, WHO
- Billions of people around the world are continuing to suffer from poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene, according to a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
- Some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic handwashing facilities.
- The report reveals that 1.8 billion people have gained access to basic drinking water services since 2000, but there are vast inequalities in the accessibility, availability and quality of these services.
- Poor sanitation and contaminated water are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid.
Typhoid, dysentery affect hundreds in Upper Chitral
- The outbreak of typhoid and dysentery has been reported from Oveer valley of Upper Chitral where hundreds of people including women and children have contracted either of the two diseases during the last couple of weeks.
- Advocate Islam Akbaruddin, the chairman of Terichmir Area Development Organisation told Dawn by telephone here on Saturday that more people were contracting the illness with each passing day and situation was dangerous in the absence of primary healthcare facilities.
- He said that although no death was caused due to the diseases yet the situation could take an ugly turn anytime as many of the patients were in precarious condition.
Brace for rainy day diseases — DOH
- Ahead of the rainy days, the Department of Health (DOH) is urging the public to get ready for the wet season by knowing how to combat the illnesses associated with it.
- “It is best to arm ourselves with weapons against these diseases even before the onset of the rainy season by building a strong resistance against these illnesses,” Duque said in a statement before the weekend.
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Duque noted it is also important to practice “personal hygiene and environmental sanitation” to keep diseases like diarrhea, water-borne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue at bay.
Spike seen in typhoid and cholera cases in Ahmedabad
- Waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera have spiked in the city this May, as their numbers have risen compared to May 2018.
- According to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s health department, there were 537 cases of typhoid this May, compared to 359 cases last year, a 50% increase.
- There had been no cholera cases in May 2018, but 16 cases were registered this May.
Vaccine Is a Cost-Effective Solution for Countries Burdened by Typhoid
- Introducing a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) into routine child vaccine schedules and conducting a catch-up campaign to vaccinate all children up to age 15 is a cost-effective solution for many low- to middle-income countries severely burdened by typhoid, a new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health finds.
- The study is the first comprehensive analysis of the cost-effectiveness of different typhoid vaccination strategies for 54 countries hit hardest by typhoid — primarily located in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — and where funding from Gavi, an international organization dedicated to vaccine introduction, is available.
- The study —published Thursday in Lancet Infectious Diseases — analyzed disease transmission rates, hospitalizations, mortality rates, vaccine-related costs and the financial resources of each country. Extensive computer modeling and analysis were applied to evaluate four strategies: no vaccination, routine immunization at nine months, or routine immunization at nine months with catch-up campaigns to either age 5 or age 15.
2,982 typhoid cases reported in Karachi
- Health Services Karachi has recorded 2,982 typhoid cases in Karachi city from 1st January to 14 May 2019 out of which 1765 are typhoid/paratyphoid fever and 1217 are S.thype-Ceftriaxone Resistant.
- The typhoid fever and S.thypi–Ceftriaxone Resistant cases are being reported across the Sindh province, particularly from Karachi city.
- The S.thypi-Ceftriaxone Resistant is much difficult to treat as compared to non-resistance typhoid.
- All reported cases have been confirmed through blood culture test from Aga Khan Hospital (AKH) as this facility is not available in secondary health facilities run by the Sindh government.
A curious case of hidden, dangerous typhoid: It’s time to take action now
- Typhoid bacterial strains in India are already resistant to the cheapest first and second line of antibiotics
- In 2017, when clinician scientist Gagandeep Kang and her colleagues started an extensive typhoid surveillance study across India, the general perception among the scientific community was that typhoid was significantly declining based on the data reported by big hospitals in India
- But when Kang’s team began to closely study people at the community level, it found about 20-fold increase in typhoid cases, mostly children, at most study centres in comparison to the numbers reported by the hospitals
What does Pakistan’s typhoid outbreak tell us?
- Pakistan is facing world’s largest extremely drug resistant (XDR) typhoid outbreak. More than 5,000 cases were reported from Hyderabad and Karachi in the first phase.
- Some 11 cases were reported in 2016, 730 in 2017 and 4,533 cases in 2018.
- The intensity was initially high at Hyderabad, but due to mass vaccination with a new WHO-prequalified conjugate vaccine, it was managed much better. Karachi, the nearest metropolitan centre, is facing a far more intense outbreak right now and needs immediate treatment and preventive measures.
Typhoid fever cases grow on Manus Island
- Two more refugees detained by Australia on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island have been diagnosed with typhoid fever.
- The men from India and Bangladesh were flown to Port Moresby on Sunday for treatment.
- Two other refugees with the contagious disease were transferred to the capital a week earlier.
NGT alarmed at post-Kumbh mess in Prayragraj, warns of epidemic
- The National Green Tribunal (NGT) administered a sharp rebuke to the Uttar Pradesh government for the thousands of tonnes of solid waste that piled up in Prayagraj and untreated sewage that flowed into the Ganga during the 49-day Kumbh mela, expressing concern that the city was on the verge of an increase in cases of diseases such as acute diarrhoea, enteric fever, viral hepatitis and cholera.
- It called for urgent steps to dispose off the solid waste that accumulated in the city during the Kumbh mela, which started on January 15 and concluded on March 4.
- Quoting the UP chief secretary, the NGT report said 60,000 tonnes of untreated solid waste had piled up at the Baswar solid waste treatment plant. Out of this figure, 18,000 tonnes had been generated during the Kumbh mela; the waste treatment plant hadn’t even been operational since September 2018.
- The NGT report predicted a rise in case of acute diarrhoea, enteric fever, viral hepatitis and cholera.
Typhoid fever strikes Manus Island refugees
- An outbreak of typhoid fever has struck refugees detained by Australia on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.
- Suspected cases of the illness are affecting men in all three refugee detention centres on the island.
- Fr Licini said food given to the men in the three camps was prepared in different kitchens but all were supplied with water from the same river.
- He estimated between 15 and 20 men were symptomatic.
IVI gets $15.7 million to conduct P3 trials for Vi-DT typhoid conjugate vaccine
- The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said it has received a $15.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a typhoid conjugate vaccine for public sector markets.
- The grant will fund the phase 3 clinical trials of the Vi-DT typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) to take place in Nepal and the Philippines over the next two years.
- IVI Director General Jerome Kim also said, “With the launch of Phase 3 clinical trials, we have reached the final milestone in our quest to develop an innovative typhoid vaccine that should be safe and effective for children six months and older.”
Does a typhoid vaccine protect against multiple threats?
- A recent study investigated the protective effects of a typhoid vaccine against microbes that are not the target of prevention.
- Analysis of immune system cells called monocytes revealed their activation in vaccinated individuals for a period of over three months after vaccination.
- This analysis showed that white blood cells from vaccinated individuals initiated a response against microbes unrelated to typhoid fever by producing specific cytokines, which are messenger molecules of the immune system.
Typhoid cases up 65 percent in El Salvador
- The El Salvador Ministry of Health (MINSAL) is reporting increases in typhoid fever this year to date as compared to the same period in 2018
- Through the first twelve weeks of 2019, 517 cases have been reported. This is an 65 percent increase compared to the 313 cases reported this time last year.
Africa’s first-ever mass typhoid fever vaccination campaign ends in Zimbabwe
- Zimbabwe is the first country in Africa to have the vaccine and to have used it in the continent’s first-ever mass typhoid vaccination campaign as well as one that was launched in response to an outbreak situation.
- The eight-day campaign took place in nine high-density Harare suburbs from25 February to 4 March. The Zimbabwe Government, through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and in collaboration with WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners, had planned to vaccinate 370 000 people, mostly children and adolescents, and had reached 73% of the targeted population in the first six days of the campaign.
- In the first five days, the campaign sought out schools and nurseries, where the targeted age group could be easily reached in the key areas of Harare before fanning out through communities and clinics.
Mass typhoid vaccinations begin
- Zimbabwe became the first country in Africa to vaccinate against typhoid
- The nine typhoid hotspots that are being targeted are Mufakose, Budiriro, Glen View, Glen Norah, Kuwadzana, Mbare, Hatcliffe, Hopley and Dzivaresekwa
- The nine selected high-density and typhoid-burdened suburbs in Harare started receiving vaccinations against typhoid February 24, with the operation expected to end on March 4
