The H58 strain that has just been discovered is a cause of concern among scientists. This type of bacteria is drug-resistant, which leaves doctors with the main weapon in the fight against this life-threatening disease – antibiotic therapy.
The discovery of the H58 bacterial strain is the result of over 20 years of research on the genome of the bacteria causing typhus – Salmonella typhi. Analyzes of over 1800 samples of typhoid fever collected from 63 countries showed that as much as 47 percent. of them belong to the H58 strain.
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What is the strength of this new type of bacteria? According to the researchers, H58 has a stable resistance gene that it transmits during reproduction. As a result, the available antibiotics are not able to destroy H58, which means that there may soon be nothing to treat typhoid fever. Every year WHO already records almost 22 million cases of typhus and half a million deaths due to it.
Typhoid fever is an acute infectious disease caused by bacteria Salmonella typhi. Interestingly, this disease only occurs in humans. Infection with typhoid fever can damage internal organs, including the heart and intestines, as well as the nervous system, bone marrow, pneumonia, pyelonephritis, thrombophlebitis of the lower extremities.
Typhoid can be infected through contact with the sick person and the carrier (and their secretions: urine and feces), as well as through contact with contaminated food and water (therefore the disease takes the greatest toll in countries with a low level of hygiene and poorly developed water supply infrastructure).
So far, the disease is prevented by immunization and compliance with the rules of hygiene – people going to tropical countries should bear this in mind.
Source: reuters.com