Mentor Comment
Typhoid cases in India are mounting without attracting the attention that influenza and swine flu currently draw, and every suspected case becomes a trigger for inappropriate or unnecessarily broad-spectrum antibiotic use. The disease is bacterial and vaccine preventable, yet it continues to be diagnosed imperfectly and treated empirically. The reason is the absence of a simple, reliable and accessible diagnostic test, which leaves the clinician with suspicion rather than confirmation. The tension is that the same empirical prescribing that substitutes for a diagnosis also generates the antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella typhi that makes future typhoid harder to treat, and it destroys the case data needed to see that resistance building.
https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/typhoid-control-needs-more-vaccine-less-antibiotic/
