Typhoid outbreak in Medellin, Colombia
A typhoid outbreak is being reported in the city of Medellin in Antioquia department in the central northwestern part of Colombia.
Fourteen cases have been confirmed so far this year. Health authorities report most cases in the central-eastern area and several in the northeastern area.
Of these cases, there is a pregnant woman, five homeless people, a person in extreme poverty and a family where two people tested positive for typhoid fever.
According to what the Undersecretary of Public Health of Antioquia, Dionisia Yusti Rivas, the fact that the capital of Antioquia has had this increase could be due to the poor housing and sanitation conditions that exist in large cities.
“The rates are always much higher in Medellín. But this particular disease is also a disease closely related to poor housing and sanitation conditions, for example, the houses that are abolished in the ravines and all that. These are diseases that almost always affect this very vulnerable population,” she said.
Typhoid fever is a serious disease caused by Salmonella Typhi (Typhi) bacteria. The bacteria spread through contaminated food and water and person-to-person contact.
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Symptoms of typhoid fever include high fever, weakness, stomach pain, headache, constipation or diarrhea, cough, and loss of appetite. Typhoid fever can be fatal without appropriate antibiotic treatment.
Typhoid risk is higher in populations that lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and children are at highest risk.
Typhoid fever is common in places with poor sanitation and a lack of safe drinking water. Access to safe water and adequate sanitation, hygiene among food handlers and typhoid vaccination are all effective in preventing typhoid fever.
Dionisia Yusti Rivas mentioned what recommendations should be taken into account if one does not want to get infected with typhoid:
“Foods on the street that we are not sure how they were prepared, can then be a high risk for contracting the disease. Drinking untreated water, contaminated water and unhygienic sanitation, for example, going to the bathroom and not washing your hands well,” she said.