Contents:
- Medical Video: 5 Common Signs of Typhoid Fever
- What are types and what are the causes?
- How bacteria can cause typhoid
- What is the difference between typhus and typhoid symptoms?
- What is the difference between typhus and typhus?
- What are the characteristics and symptoms of typhoid?
- What are the symptoms of typhoid in children?
- What are the complications that can occur due to typhoid aka typhoid fever?
- People who have been tricked can be carriers of typhoid
- How to diagnose typhoid fever?
- What are the medications that are treatments for curing typhoid?
- Home care if you have typhoid pain
- How to prevent symptoms of typhoid?
- Is the typhoid vaccine effective for preventing typhoid fever?
Medical Video: 5 Common Signs of Typhoid Fever
Tipes or typhoid fever is one of the diseases that are often suffered by Indonesians, both adults and children. This disease is caused by bacteria that attach to food or drinks, usually due to snacks at random. You might also hear someone diagnosed with symptoms of typhoid by a doctor. Well, are the symptoms of typhoid and typhoid the same disease?
What are types and what are the causes?
Typhoid fever or commonly known as typhoid is a disease that can spread through food, water, or transmitted from an infected person (through its feces). Tipes are caused by bacteria Salmonella typhi. These bacteria are usually present in water contaminated with feces and can stick to the food or drink you consume.
If you often snack at random and your body's resistance is on the decline, you may experience typhoid fever. Small children may be more susceptible to typhoid fever because their endurance is not as strong as adults or it could be because children are not able to maintain cleanliness when eating.
Apart from food or beverages contaminated with S. typhi bacteria, occasional typhoid can also be caused by direct contact with an infected person. You can experience S. typhi bacterial infection when you eat food that is handled by people who are typhoid fever.
It could be that an infected person forgets to wash his hands after using the toilet (sometimes S. typhi bacteria is in the urine) and then the infected person immediately handles food, so that bacteria can move to food.
How bacteria can cause typhoid
After you ingest the S. typhi bacteria found in contaminated food or drink, the bacteria then enter your bloodstream. Bacteria are carried by white blood cells to the liver, spleen and bone marrow.
Furthermore, the bacteria multiply in these organs and re-enter the bloodstream. When bacteria invade the bloodstream, you begin to experience symptoms of fever. Fever is the body's response when it knows that there is a foreign body entering the body and endangering it.
The bacteria then enter the gallbladder, bile duct, and intestinal lymphatic tissue. This is where the bacteria multiply in large quantities. The bacteria then enter the intestine. So, if an examination of your stool is done, it will be seen whether or not your body has bacteria causing typhoid or not.
What is the difference between typhus and typhoid symptoms?
Basically, typhus and typhoid symptoms refer to the same disease. Both are caused by the bacteria S. typhi. However, when you check your illness to a doctor, more often it may be a doctor will call it a symptom of typhoid. This is because what you feel is the symptoms of typhoid.
To say that you are sick with typhus, your doctor needs to diagnose you further by testing your blood, stool, urine, or bone marrow sample.
You will usually experience symptoms of typhoid after 1-2 weeks after the bacteria enter. This period is called the incubation period. After the bacteria enter through the mouth, then the bacteria spend 1-3 weeks in your intestine. Furthermore, these bacteria will enter the bloodstream by penetrating the intestinal wall.
From the bloodstream, these bacteria can spread to tissues and organs in the body. Your immune system may only be able to fight these bacteria with a little resistance because the bacteria live in your body's cells.
What is the difference between typhus and typhus?
Many people might think typhoid and typhus are the same thing. The mention of typhus and types that are indeed similar makes many people mistaken. However, actually typhoid typhoid aka different from typhus.
Tipes or typhoid fever is caused due to infection of the Salmonella typhi bacteria in the intestine. Meanwhile, typhus is a disease caused by the bacteria Rickettsia typhi or R. prowazekii. These bacteria can be carried by ectoparasites, such as lice or mites in mice, and then infect humans.
Indeed, the symptoms of high fever can both occur in people infected with typhoid and typhus. But bacteria that are the source of infection from typhoid and typhus are different. Apart from high fever, other symptoms of typhus that can appear are abdominal pain, back pain, dry cough, headache, joint and muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting.
As for some types of typhus, depending on the source of the bacteria that infects them, are:
- Epidemic typhus caused by the bacterium Rickettsia prowazeki, which is transmitted by tick bites to the human body. This type of typhus can cause serious illness and even death.
- Endemic typhus or murine typhus caused by the bacterium Rickettsia typhi, which is transmitted by fleas in mice. This disease is similar to epidemic typhus, but has symptoms that are milder and rarely cause death.
- Scrub typhus caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, transmitted through the bite of larval mites that live in rodents. This disease can attack humans at a mild to severe level.
- Spotted fever or a fever accompanied by red spots on the skin is spread by the bite of tick animals infected with the Rickettsia group bacteria.
What are the characteristics and symptoms of typhoid?
Symptoms of typhoid or typhoid fever can appear at a mild to severe level, depending on several factors, such as age, health, and history of vaccination. Symptoms that appear can also appear gradually or suddenly.
Some of the symptoms of typhoid that you can experience are:
- Fever as high as 40 ° C
- Rashes or red spots on the skin
- Headache
- Muscle aches and pains
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Stomach ache
- Gag
- Weak and lethargic
What are the symptoms of typhoid in children?
Symptoms of typhoid in children are actually not much different from adults. Among them are high fever, headache, sore throat, weakness and lethargy, lack of energy, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, and red spots.
If the child has shown these symptoms gradually, you should immediately take the child to the doctor to be treated immediately. Handling late can cause symptoms of typhoid more severe or even complications. Children can experience severe weight loss, severe diarrhea, higher fever, even hallucinations.
Usually, these typhoid symptoms will begin to improve in the third to fourth week since they first appeared. However, when you experience typhoid complications, the symptoms may last longer. Symptoms of typhoid can also recur after you feel healed (called recurrent symptoms). About 10% of typhoid patients can experience recurrent symptoms for one to two weeks.
What are the complications that can occur due to typhoid aka typhoid fever?
Typhoid complications can appear when typhoid is left or not treated immediately. Tipes can develop more seriously and may cause death. In children, typhoid complications may be less common than in adults.
When typhoid is severe and more serious, the intestine can bleed and become hollow (intestinal perforation) and can cause peritonitis (infection of the tissue that lines the inside of the stomach). This condition can be life threatening, so immediate medical attention is needed.
In addition, other complications that can arise are problems with the lungs or heart, infections of the bones or joints, urinary tract infections, or mental health problems. This complication is actually less common. However, immediate treatment must still be done if symptoms of typhus begin to appear.
People who have been tricked can be carriers of typhoid
Handling typhoid must be done quickly and also thoroughly. Why? This is because typhoid can be life threatening. In addition, incomplete typhoid disease can also develop at a later time.
Some people who recover from typhoid can continue to carry bacteria that cause typhoid in the intestinal tract or gallbladder. Not only in months, but also for years.This person is referred to as a chronic carrier.
About 3-5% of typhoid fever patients can become chronic carriers, reported from Medicine Net. Stools of chronic carriers can still contain S. typhi bacteria, so that bacteria can spread and infect others in years.
Although it carries S. typhi bacteria, this chronic carrier does not develop typhoid symptoms. So, he or someone else might not know if there is still a bacterium in S. typhi, if not examined.
How to diagnose typhoid fever?
As previously explained, doctors are not careless in diagnosing someone with typhoid disease. When a person is declared to have typhoid, it means that S. typhi is found in the bloodstream.
To prove you have types or not, of course you need further examination. This examination is done by analyzing blood, feces, or urine samples. One of the samples will then be seen under a microscope, whether there is a bacterium S. typhi or not.
If found, someone is diagnosed with typhoid. Actually there is another way to diagnose typhoid more accurately than the three tests above, namely by using bone marrow samples. However, this method is more painful and takes longer.
What are the medications that are treatments for curing typhoid?
Each typhoid patient needs different treatments. You may have seen typhoid patients may be treated at home, while other patients must be hospitalized. The handling of this type of tip certainly depends on the severity of typhoid disease. The doctor will assess and consider what treatment is right given to the patient.
Giving antibiotics is needed to treat typhoid disease. This antibiotic is responsible for killing S. typhi bacteria in the body. Some antibiotics are effective in treating typhus, including Chloramphenicol, Ciprofloxacin, Ceftriaxone (usually given if the patient is pregnant), Ampicillin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.
In addition to patients with typhoid pain, antibiotics can also be given to chronic carriers. This antibiotic may have to be used longer so that the S. typhi bacteria is completely lost in the body.
Home care if you have typhoid pain
If typhoid fever is diagnosed at an early stage, you may still be treated at home. Most infected people need to undergo 7-14 days of home care to recover from typhoid disease. Some of the treatments you have to take at home to get well soon are:
- Take antibiotics as recommended, not to miss them. Symptoms may improve after two to three days when you take antibiotics. But, the antibiotic prescribed by your doctor should be spent so that your disease is completely cured and does not recur.
- Make sure you get enough rest. At this time your body is fighting infecting bacteria, so the body needs a lot of energy.
- Drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration, especially if you experience vomiting. High fever and vomiting which are symptoms of typhoid can make you prone to dehydration.
- Fulfill your nutritional needs by eating a lot. You may lose your appetite at this time, but however your body needs energy and nutrients to fight bacteria. For that, you should eat. Eating in small portions but more often may make it easier for you.
- Don't forget to keep clean, like diligently washing your hands with soap. This is so that the infection does not spread to people around you.
If the symptoms of typhoid have not improved after a few days at home, or even typhoid symptoms are more severe, you should immediately see a doctor.
How to prevent symptoms of typhoid?
Tipes is a disease caused by bacteria. Anyone can experience this disease if they do not maintain cleanliness, especially when eating. This is because bacteria that cause typhus can stick to the food and drinks you consume. For this reason, the most important thing you can do to prevent types is to maintain cleanliness.
The following are some ways you can prevent types:
- Wash hands before eating or after from the toilet
- Avoid adding ice to drinks from unclear sources, for example when you buy ice drinks on the roadside
- You can buy bottled water drinks if you don't bring water from home. It's more clean.
- Avoid eating raw fruits and vegetables sold on the roadside. The raw fruits and vegetables can be contaminated.
- We recommend that you bring lunch from home if you are traveling outside
- If you are forced to eat outside, you should choose a place to eat that is guaranteed cleanliness
- Choose foods that are freshly cooked or still hot if you eat outside
- Beware of any food handled by other people
Is the typhoid vaccine effective for preventing typhoid fever?
Typhoid vaccination can also be done to prevent typhoid. Quoted from IDAI's website, typhoid vaccination is recommended to be given to children over the age of 2 years. Giving is repeated every 3 years. After the child gets a typhoid vaccination, the child may experience fever, headache, or redness in the area of the injection site. This is normal, but the frequency is rare.
