United News of Bangladesh

A recent study has raised fresh alarm over typhoid fever, an ancient disease now rapidly evolving resistance to life-saving antibiotics, posing a renewed threat to global public health. According to research published in 2022, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) — the bacterium that causes typhoid — is increasingly becoming resistant to a wide range of antibiotics. These highly resistant strains are now replacing those that can still be treated, making the disease significantly harder to control. Antibiotics remain the only effective treatment for typhoid, but over the past 30 years, S. Typhi has steadily acquired resistance to commonly used oral medications. The study, which examined 3,489 S. Typhi samples collected between 2014 and 2019 from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and India, documented a concerning surge in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains. These XDR typhoid strains are resistant not only to older antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, but are also showing growing resistance to newer classes of antibiotics, including fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins. 14 million children missed all vaccinations in 2024, UN warns Even more concerning, these drug-resistant strains are spreading globally at a rapid pace. While most cases originate in South Asia, researchers have identified nearly 200 instances of international spread since 1990. The majority of these have extended to Southeast Asia and parts of East and Southern Africa, but some have also reached the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. Lead researcher Dr Jason Andrews of 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. “At the same time, the fact resistant strains of S. Typhi have spread internationally so many times also underscores the need to view typhoid control, and antibiotic resistance more generally, as a global rather than local problem.” Source: NDTV