This highly contagious ancient illness is becoming resistant to treatment

Typhoid is a highly contagious ancient illness which has existed since at least 1838. Now, researchers have found that it's building up a resistance to antibiotic treatment.

What is typhoid?

According to the NHS, ​​typhoid fever is a bacterial infection that can spread throughout the body, impacting many organs. It's caused by a bacterium called Salmonella typhi (S Typhi).

Typhoid fever is highly contagious and is usually spread when an infected person uses the bathroom and does not wash their hands, according to the CDC. The bacteria on their hands then contaminates everything that the person touches, including any food and drinks.

What’s the problem?

The bacterium that causes typhoid, S Typhi, has allegedly been building up a resistance to oral antibiotics, which is the only way to effectively treat the infection,for the past 30 years.

And according to research published in the journal Lancet, this resistance is rising. Scientists sequenced genomes of 3,489 different S Typhi strains contracted from 2014 to 2019 in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, finding that one specific strain was very resistant.

Called XDR Typhi, it is resistant to trademark antibiotics such as ampicillin and chloramphenicol but is even building up resilience to newer treatments such as fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins.

And worryingly, XDR Typhi cases are increasing globally. While typically found in Asia, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that antibiotic resistance is a 'global health emergency', as reported by Express.

Jason Andrews, an infectious disease specialist from Stanford University, said:

The speed at which highly-resistant strains of S. Typhi have emerged and spread in recent years is a real cause for concern, and highlights the need to urgently expand prevention measures, particularly in countries at greatest risk.

The team of international authors behind the study said:

The recent emergence of XDR and azithromycin-resistant S Typhi creates greater urgency for rapidly expanding prevention measures, including use of typhoid conjugate vaccines in typhoid-endemic countries.

Such measures are needed in countries where antimicrobial resistance prevalence among S Typhi isolates is currently high, but given the propensity for international spread, should not be restricted to such settings.

Dr Rumina Hasan, a pathology professor at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, warned:

Antibiotic resistance is a threat to all of modern medicine — and the scary part is we’re out of options.

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