PESHAWAR, June 9: Expressing deep concern over the outbreak of typhoid fever, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has called for elaborate measures to stem the tide of the ailment that was killing two per cent children annually in Peshawar city alone. This was stated by Dr Ahmad Jamal, provincial president of the PMA, at a press conference here on Thursday.

He said that typhoid is a water-borne disease caused by bacteria known as salmonella typhi.

He said that the PMA carried out a survey at the Hayatabad Medical Complex and the Lady Reading Hospital, the city’s two main hospitals, from which it was learnt that the death of more than two per cent children occurred due to typhoid.

The survey showed that old people were more prone to the disease in comparison to children.

Dr Jamal said that about 17 million cases of typhoid fever occur annually in the world, causing more than 700,000 deaths.

He said that typhoid spread through the excretory waste of infected individuals, and added that the disease was totally water-borne and occurred mostly in those countries where sanitation and food hygiene were poor.

Regarding symptoms of the disease, Dr Jamal said it varied from case to case but frequently consisted of intermittent fever, headache, fatigue and weakness, changes in behaviour and abdominal discomfort with constipation in the early stages of the disease followed by diarrhoea later.

He said that perforation of the intestine and haemorrhage are two of the feared complications of typhoid, occurring in 0.5 to 1 per cent cases.

Regarding treatment of the disease, he said that antibiotic therapy formed the mainstay of treatment but this was being increasingly challenged by the growing occurrence of multi-drug resistant strains of salmonella typhi.

Therefore, he called for early protection from the dangerous disease.

He elucidated that the most effective way of protection from the disease was through vaccination (Vi-polysaccharide vaccine).

He said that vaccines against typhoid should be recommended for the people, especially school-going children who were more susceptible to the disease.