Staying Healthy Via Vaccination Protection Against Typhoid Fever

Staying Healthy Via Vaccination Protection Against Typhoid Fever

Do not allow images of the revolutionary war to cloud your thinking when it comes to typhoid and/or typhoid fever. Believe it or not, this deadly disease is still alive and well outside of history books. We really do tend to become comfortable in our little bubble of American safety when it comes to these terrible illnesses that still ravage the world, don’t we? That’s all fine and good when our vacations are in Florida, but when they are across the ocean in a high-risk area for typhoid, we better get ourselves to a certified travel clinic for that vaccination-and quick!

A typhoid vaccination? Who in their right mind would figure they’d need one of these in the year 2012. Obviously someone is dropping the ball over at the Centers for Disease Control. Where they are not dropping the ball would be at all the professional certified travel clinics that provide the only safety you have against this ancient anomaly: the typhoid vaccination.

In this article we shall take a look at typhoid, its vaccination, symptoms etc. Let us begin with what exactly typhoid is. Typhoid is an awful life-threatening disease that is caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi. The bacteria is alive and well in for it…feces of the infected. This means that anyone handling food-but does not wash their hands properly before doing so-can potentially infect another person. If typhoid gets into an area’s water supply it will grow there and infect the entire region. Once the bacterium is ingested, only medication can control its spread. It makes much more sense to receive a vaccination before exposure.

How can we avoid catching typhoid? There are only two ways to avoid catching it. The first one is to avoid eating or drinking any food or water that you deem risky. This means when you see a food cart on the streets of Jakarta think twice before chowing down on the giant beetles on a stick appetizer. The second is to receive a oral typhoid vaccination while still in the states. Any certified travel clinic will be able to administer the proper vaccination to keep you safe during your overseas excursion.

What are the symptoms of typhoid? Well, they include a prolonged high fever (typhoid fever) often with painful headache, coughing, loss of appetite and diarrhea. These days typhoid fever is treated with antibiotics, before this the death rate was much higher. Believe it or not, there are approximately four hundred cases of typhoid fever a year in the United States-but seventy five percent of these cases are acquired while overseas in a high risk area.

An oral typhoid vaccine is readily available at a certified travel clinic. Your doctor will be able to recommend one depending on where you are going and how long you will be staying. Discuss all the countries and areas that you plan to travel to with your doctor before jetting off. Your new doctor will advise on danger spots and recommend if a vaccination is right for you.