Today I will be talking to you about typhoid fever. Biologically speaking, we know that the causative organism of typhoid fever is salmonella typhi. People are not alarm about typhoid fever since it is not a pandemic like Ebola or Corona virus. But there are quite a lot of people that are suffering on regular basis from this dreaded disease.
CAUSES OF TYPHOID FEVER
Typhoid is an infection of the gut that affects the whole body. It is spread from feces-to-mouth in contaminated food and water and often comes in epidemics i.e. many people sick at once. Of the different infections sometimes called the fever, typhoid is one of the commonest and most dangerous infection next to it is malaria infection.
SYMPTOMS OF TYPHOID FEVER
Begins like a cold or flu for the first week. Headache ,sore throat, and sometimes dry cough.The fever goes up and down,but raises a little more each day until it reaches 40 degree celsius or more.Temperature goes up a little more each day. Pulse relatively slow for the amounts of fever present. You may have to check the pulse and temperature every half hour. If the pulse get slower when the fever goes up, the person probably has typhoid.Sometimes vomiting, diarrhoea,constipation and dehydration. Trembling or delirium (mind wanders). Person very ill. Second week expect high fever,relative slow pulse, some faint spotty rash may appear on the body, sometimes trembling, delirium (person finds it difficult to think clearly or sensibly,weakness,weight loss and dehydration. Third week if there are no complications, the fever and other symptoms slowly go away.
COINCIDENCE
Typhoid fever always coincide with malaria fever making it impossible to differentiate between the two.
SOME MEDICAL ADVICE
Seek medical help. Lower the fever with cool wet cloth,give plenty of liquids: soaps, juices, and rehydration drinks to avoid dehydration, give nutritious food, in liquid form if necessary. The person should stay in bed until the fever have completely gone. If the person shits blood or develops of peritonities or pneumonia take him or her to a hospital at once.
SOME NATURAL REMEDIES
(1)To prevent typhoid, care must be taken to avoid contamination of water and food by human feces, for those using toilet tissure to sanitize their bowls after defecation should always washed their hands with soap after each visit to the toilet, and they should cut their finger nails low. The washing of the bowl with hands and water after defecation should be discouraged.
(2)Be sure latrines are a safe distance from where people get drinking water.
(3)Cases of typhoid often appear during a flood or other disaster and special care must be taken with cleanliness at these times.
(4)Most pure water so called and bottle water are not 100% reriable as there are still many cases from people who consume them,better still all drinking water should be boiled. Some use chemicals on their water ,this is not proven effective, but water boiled to 100 degree Celsius should be free from all germs and should be refrigerated
(5) To avoid the spread of typhoid, a person who has the disease should stay in a separate room. No one else should eat or drink from the dishes he uses. His stools should be burned or buried in deep holes. Persons who care for him should wash their hands right afterwards.
(6)After recovering from typhoid, some persons still carry the disease and can spread it to others.So anyone who has had typhoid be extra careful with personal cleanliness and should not work in restaurants or where food is handled. Sometimes ampicillin is effective in treating typhoid carriers but better still consult your doctor if you feel any symptoms and remember that prevention is better than cure.
REFERENCES
Where there is no doctor (p196-198)
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