Infect Chemother.  2019 Sep;51(3):330-335. 10.3947/ic.2019.51.3.330.

Management of Typhoid Fever – Clinical and Historical Perspectives in Korea

• Chang MS
• Woo JH
• Kim S

• KMID: 2459049
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2019.51.3.330

Abstract

Typhoid fever, showed a dramatic decrease in its incidence from 56 per 100,000 population just after Korea's independence to <1 per 100,000 population in 2000s. The clinical features of patients with typhoid fever in Korea were not too different from those reported in textbooks. Beyond cultures and Widal test, other diagnostic techniques such as string capsule culture and polymerase chain reaction have been tried in Korea. As chloramphenicol is not used anymore in Korea, ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, fluoroquinolones, and third-generation cephalosporins have been administered for therapy of typhoid fever. Especially, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone were successfully tried with shorter duration of treatment (1 week). However, cases of treatment failure and resistance in ciprofloxacin were reported in Korea, which requires a great caution. As preventive vaccines, parenteral Vi polysaccharide vaccine and oral live attenuated vaccine are mainly used in Korea. The decline in the number of chronic carriers of typhoid fever in Korea by the roles of doctors and patient management from the health care authorities such as Korea Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, prescription of effective antimicrobial agents, and increased piped water supply ratio are considered to be the major contributing factors to the reduction in the outbreak of typhoid fever in Korea.

Keyword

Typhoid fever; Epidemiology; Management; Prevention

MeSH Terms

Ampicillin
Anti-Infective Agents
Ceftriaxone
Cephalosporins
Chloramphenicol
Ciprofloxacin
Delivery of Health Care
Epidemiology
Fluoroquinolones
Humans
Incidence
Korea
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Prescriptions
Treatment Failure
Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination
Typhoid Fever*
Vaccines
Water Supply
Ampicillin
Anti-Infective Agents
Ceftriaxone
Cephalosporins
Chloramphenicol
Ciprofloxacin
Fluoroquinolones
Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination
Vaccines

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