Typhoid fever or enteric fever is an acute infectious illness associated with fever that is most often caused by the Salmonella typhi bacteria. Salmonella Paratyphi, a related bacterium that usually leads to a less severe illness, can also cause typhoid fever. The feces of human carriers of the bacteria may contaminate water or food, and the illness then spreads to other people in the area.

How do you get typhoid fever?

Typhoid fever is very contagious and contracted by the ingestion of bacteria in contaminated food or water. It does not spread through the air (by cough) but can be by touching (I “Dr Qaisar Ahmed” have treated many such patients who were possibly infected by sweat of patient or by using their towels and/or utensils); Flies and mosquitoes are also typhoid career, said Dr Qaisar Ahmed.

People contract typhoid fever when they ingest bacteria in contaminated food or water. Patients with acute illness can contaminate the surrounding water supply through stool, which contains a high concentration of the bacteria. Contamination of the water supply can taint the food supply. About 3%-5% of patients become carriers of the bacteria after acute illness. Some patients suffer a very mild illness that goes unrecognized. These patients can become long-term carriers of the bacteria. The bacteria multiply in the gallbladder, bile ducts, and liver and pass into the bowel. The bacteria can survive for weeks in water or dried sewage. These chronic carriers may have no symptoms and can be the source of new outbreaks of typhoid fever for many years.

After the ingestion of contaminated food or water, the Salmonella bacteria invade the small intestine and enter the bloodstream temporarily. White blood cells carry the bacteria to the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. The bacteria then multiply in the cells of these organs and reenter the bloodstream. Patients develop symptoms, including fever, when the organism reenters the bloodstream.

Bacteria invade the gallbladder, biliary system, and the lymphatic tissue of the bowel. Here, they multiply in high numbers. The bacteria pass into the intestinal tract and can be identified for diagnosis in cultures from the stool tested in the laboratory.

Stool cultures are sensitive in the early and late stages of the disease, but it may be necessary to perform blood cultures to make a definitive diagnosis.

Symptoms

The incubation period is usually 1-2 weeks, and the duration of the illness is about 4-6 weeks.

The patient experiences the following:

• poor appetite.
• abdominal pain and peritonitis.
• headaches.
• generalized aches and pains and weakness.
• high fever, often up to 104 F.
• lethargy (usually only if untreated).
• intestinal bleeding or perforation (after 2-3 weeks of the disease).
• cough.
• diarrhea; or
• constipation.

Patients with typhoid fever usually have a sustained fever as high as 103 F-104 F (39 C-40 C).

Chest congestion develops in many patients, and abdominal pain and discomfort are common. The fever becomes constant. Improvement occurs in the third and fourth weeks in those without complications. About 10% of patients have recurrent symptoms (relapse) after feeling better for 1-2 weeks. Relapses are more common in individuals treated with antibiotics.

Diagnosis

Advise to take samples of body fluids or tissue to test for signs of S. Typhi. Some other required tests are:

• Blood.
• Stool.
• Urine.
• Bone marrow.

Take X-rays to look for changes in the lungs.

Allopathic treatment for typhoid fever

Antibiotics that kill the Salmonella bacteria treat typhoid fever. Before the use of antibiotics and intravenous fluids, the fatality rate was 20%. The death occurred from overwhelming infection, pneumonia, intestinal bleeding, or intestinal perforation. Antibiotics and supportive care have reduced the mortality rate to 1%-2%. With appropriate antibiotic therapy, there is usually improvement within one to two days and recovery within 7 to 10 days.

Several antibiotics are effective for the treatment of typhoid fever. Chloramphenicol was the original drug of choice for many years. Because of rare serious side effects, other effective antibiotics have replaced chloramphenicol. The choice of antibiotics needs to be guided by identifying the geographic region where the organism was acquired and the results of cultures once available. (Certain strains show significant resistance to some antibiotics).

Ciprofloxacin is the most frequently used drug throughout the world for nonpregnant patients.

Ceftriaxone, an intramuscular injection medication, is an alternative for pregnant patients.

Ampicillin and trimethoprim are frequently prescribed antibiotics although resistance has been reported in recent years.

Medical professionals have reported multi-drug resistance and use cultures to guide treatment. If relapses occur, patients retreat with antibiotics. Prolonged antibiotics can treat the carrier state, which occurs in 3%-5% of those infected. Often, removal of the gallbladder (strictly not recommended by Dr Qaisar Ahmed), the site of chronic infection, will cure the carrier state.

Homeopathic treatment for typhoid fever

Typhoidinum

Recurrent fevers, migraine, GERD, Meniere’s disease, depression, and plantar warts. Reduces the bloated, flatulence and red spots on abdomen. Controls the loose motions that is very foul smelling. Decreases the coldness with high temperature. Nausea with fever. Blood-stained stools.

Arsenic Album

High temperature. Periodicity marked with adynamia. Septic fevers. Intermittent. Paroxysms incomplete, with marked exhaustion. Hay-fever. Cold sweats. Typhoid. Complete exhaustion. Delirium. Severe restlessness. Itching, burning, swellings; oedema, eruption, papular, dry, rough, scaly; worse cold and scratching. Malignant pustules. Ulcers with offensive discharge. Anthrax.

Gnawing abdominal pains, burning pains; relieved by heat. Liver and spleen enlarged and painful. Ascites and anasarca. Abdomen swollen and painful. Pain as from a wound in abdomen on coughing. Long-lasting eructation. Vomiting of blood, bile, green mucus, or brown-black mixed with blood. Stomach extremely irritable. Gastralgia from slightest food or drink. Ascites and anasarca.

Rectum painful, spasmodic. Tenesmus. Burning pain and pressure in rectum and anus. Stool small, offensive, dark, with much prostration. Dysentery dark, bloody, very offensive. Cholera, with intense agony, prostration, and burning thirst. Body cold. Hemorrhoids’ burn like fire, relieved by heat. Skin excoriated about anus.

Gelsemium sempervirens

Fever. Shriveling. Pulse slow, full, soft, compressible. Chilliness up and down back. Heat and sweat stages, long and exhausting. Dumb ague, with severe muscular soreness, severe prostration, and violent headache. Nervous chills. Bilious remittent fever, with stupor, dizziness, faintness; thirstless, prostrated. Chill, without thirst, along spine; wave-like, extending upward from sacrum to occiput. Loss of muscular control. Cramp in muscles of forearm. Vertigo, spreading from occiput. Heaviness of head; band-feeling around and occipital headache. Sensation of emptiness and weakness at the pit of the stomach. Diarrhea. Stool painless or involuntary. Cream-colored stool or sometime tea green. Partial paralysis of rectum and sphincter.

Skin hot, dry, itching, measle-like eruption. Erysipelas. Measles, catarrhal symptoms. Retrocedent, with livid spots. Scarlet fever with stupor and flushed face.

Nux vomica

Body burning hot, especially face. Feeling chilly. Urticaria, with gastric derangement. Acne; skin red and blotchy. Fever – Cold stage predominates. Paroxysms anticipate in morning. Excessive rigor, with cyanosis of fingernails. Aching in limbs and back. Chilly; must be covered in every stage of fever. Perspiration sour; only one side of body. Chilliness on being uncovered yet does not like to be covered. Vertigo, with momentary loss of consciousness. Intoxicated feeling.

Sour mouth taste, and nausea in the morning, after eating. Weight and pain in stomach. Flatulence and pyrosis. Sour, bitter eructation. Nausea and vomiting, with much retching. Ravenous hunger. Region of stomach very sensitive to pressure. Epigastrium bloated, with pressure s of a stone. Desire for stimulants. Loves fats and tolerates them well (Puls opposite). Dyspepsia from drinking coffee. Difficult belching of gas. Wants to vomit but cannot. Bruised soreness of abdominal walls. Flatulent distension, with spasmodic colic. Colic from uncovering. Liver engorged, with stitches and soreness. Colic, with upward pressure, causing short breath, and desire for stool. Weakness of abdominal ring region. Strangulated hernia. Forcing in lower abdomen towards genitals.

Constipation, with frequent ineffectual urging, incomplete and unsatisfactory; feeling as if part remained unexpelled. Constriction of rectum. Irregular, peristaltic action; hence frequent ineffectual desire, or passing but small quantities at each attempt. Absence of all desire for defecation is a contra-indication. Alternate constipation and diarrhea-after abuse of purgatives. Urging to stool felt throughout abdomen. Itching, blind hemorrhoids, with ineffectual urging to stool; very painful; after drastic drugs and allopathic medication. Diarrhea after a debauch. Frequent small evacuations. Scanty stool, with much urging. Dysentery: stools relieve pains for a time. Constant uneasiness in rectum. Diarrhea, with jaundice.

Carbo Vegetabilis

Coldness, with thirst. Chill begins in forearm. Burning in various places. Perspiration on eating. Hectic fever, exhausting sweats. Tongue coated white or yellow brown, covered with aphthae.

Skin blue, cold ecchymosed. Marbled with venous over distension. Itching; worse on evening, when warm in bed. Moist skin; hot perspiration; senile gangrene beginning in toes; bed sores; bleed easily. Falling out of hair, from a general weakened condition. Indolent ulcers, burning pain. Ichorous, offensive discharge; tendency to gangrene of the margins. Purpura. Varicose ulcers, carbuncles.

Abdominal pain; colic; excessive discharge of fetid flatus. Cannot bear tight clothing around waist and abdomen. Ailments accompanying intestinal fistulae. Abdomen greatly distended. Flatulent colic. Pain in liver. Eructation, heaviness, fullness, and sleepiness; tense from flatulence, with pain. Eructation after eating and drinking. Temporary relief from belching. Rancid, sour, or putrid eructation. Waterbrash, asthmatic breathing from flatulence. Nausea in the morning. Burning in stomach, extending to back and along spine. Contractive pain extending to chest, with distention of abdomen. Faint gone feeling in stomach, not relieved by eating. Crampy pains forcing patient to bend double. Distress comes on a half-hour after eating. Sensitiveness of epigastric region. Digestion slow; food putrefies before it digests. Gastralgia of nursing women, with excessive flatulence, sour, rancid belching. Aversion to milk, meat, and fat things. The simplest food distresses. Epigastric region very sensitive.

Flatus hot, moist, offensive. Itching, gnawing and burning in rectum. Acrid, corrosive moisture from rectum. A musty, glutinous moisture exudes. Soreness, itching moisture of perineum at night. Discharge of blood from rectum. Burning at anus, burning varices. Painful diarrhea. Frequent, involuntary cadaverous-smelling stools, followed by burning. White hemorrhoids; excoriation of anus. Bluish, burning piles, pain after stool.

Arnica

Febrile symptoms closely related to typhoid. Shivering over whole body. Heat and redness of head, with coolness of rest of body. Internal heat; feet and hands cold. Nightly sour sweats. Skin black and blue. Itching, burning, eruption of small pimples. Crops of small boils. Ecchymosis. Pain in back and limbs. Everything on which he lies seems too hard. Deathly coldness of forearm. Fetid breath. Throat dry and thirsty. Bitter taste. Taste as from bad eggs. Soreness of gums after teeth extraction. Empyema of maxillary sinus. Face sunken; very red. Heat in lips. Herpes in face.

Canine hunger. Vomiting of blood. Pain in stomach during eating. Repletion with loathing. Oppressive gases pass upward and downward. Pressure as from a stone. Feeling as if stomach were passing against spine. Fetid vomiting. Stitches under false ribs. Distended, offensive flatus. Sharp thrusts through abdomen. Straining of tenesmus in diarrhea. Offensive, brown, bloody, putrid, involuntary. Must lie down after every stool. Diarrhea of consumption; worse lying on left side. Dysenteric stools with muscular pains.

Baptisia tinctoria

Chill, with rheumatic pains and soreness all over body. Heat all over, with occasional chills. Adynamic fevers. Typhus fever. Typhoid fever. Shipboard fever. Livid spots all over body and limbs. Burning and heat in skin. Putrid ulcers with stupor, low delirium and prostration. Mouth taste flat, bitter. Teeth and gums sore, ulcerated. Breath fetid. Tongue feels burned; yellowish-brown; edges red and shining. Dry and brown in center, with dry and glistening edges; surface cracked and sore. Can swallow liquids only, least solid food gags. Can swallow only liquids, vomiting due to spasm of esophagus. Gastric fever. No appetite. Constant desire for water. Sinking feeling at stomach. Pain in epigastric region. Feeling of hard substance. Cardiac orifice contracted convulsively and ulcerative inflammation of stomach and bowels.

Abdomen distended and rumbling. Soreness over region of gallbladder, with diarrhea. Stools very offensive, thin, dark, bloody. Soreness of abdomen, in region of liver.

Phosphorus

Chilly every evening. Cold knees at night. Adynamic with lack of thirst, but unnatural hunger. Hectic, with small, quick pulse; viscid night-sweats. Stupid delirium. Profuse perspiration. Tongue dry, smooth, red or white, not thickly coated. Wounds bleed very much, even if small; wounds heal and break out again. Jaundice. Little ulcer outside of large ones. Petechiae. Ecchymosis. Purpura hemorrhagic. Scurvy. Fungus haematoidin and excrescences. Weakness and trembling. Can scarcely hold anything with her/his hands.

Hunger soon after eating. Sour taste and sour eructation. Belching large quantities of wind. Throws up ingesta by the mouthfuls. Vomiting: water is thrown up as soon as it gets warm in the stomach. Postoperative vomiting. Cardiac opening seems contracted, too narrow; the food scarcely swallowed, comes up again. Pain in stomach. Region of stomach painful to touch, or on walking. Inflammation of stomach, with burning extending to throat and bowels.

Abdomen feels cold. Sharp, cutting pains. A very weak, empty, gone sensation felt in whole abdominal cavity. Liver congested. Acute hepatitis. Fatty degeneration. Jaundice. Pancreatic disease. Large, yellow spots on abdomen. Stool very fetid and with flatus. Stools long, narrow, hard, like a dog’s. Difficult to expel. Desire for stool on lying on, left side. Painless, copious debilitating diarrhea. Green mucus with grains like sago. Involuntary; seems as if anus remained open. Great weakness after stool. Discharge of blood from rectum, during stool. White, hard stools. Bleeding hemorrhoids.

Phosphoricum Acidum

Chilliness. Profuse sweat during night and morning. Low types of fever, with dull comprehension. Stupor. Pimples, acne, blood-boils. Ulcers, with very offensive pus. Burning red rash. Formication in various parts. Falling out of the hair. Tendency to abscess after fevers.

Sour risings. Nausea. Symptoms following sour food and drink. Pressure as from a weight, with sleepiness after eating. Tongue swollen, dry, with viscid, frothy mucus.

Abdomen distention and fermentation in bowels. Enlarged spleen. Aching in umbilical region. Loud rumbling. Diarrhea, white, watery, involuntary, painless, with much flatus; not specially exhausting. Diarrhea in weakly, delicate rachitic children.

Muriaticum Acidum

Cold extremities. Heat without thirst. Typhoid. Stupid. Hemorrhages. Restlessness. Involuntary discharges. Bed-sores. Pulse rapid and feeble. Excessive prostration. Papular and vesicular eruptions, with great itching. Carbuncles; foul-smelling ulcers on lower extremities. Scarlet fever, livid, with petechiae; scanty eruption. Eczema on back of hands. Tongue, pale, swollen, dry, leathery, paralyzed. Deep ulcers on tongue. Hard lumps in tongue. Epithelioma; edges bluish red. Aphthous mouth. Gums and glands swollen. Fetid Breath. Uvula swollen. Ulcers and false membrane. Edematous, dark, raw. Attempted swallowing produces spasm and choking.

Cannot bear sight or thought of meat. At times, ravenous appetite and constant desire to drink. Achlorhydria and fermentation of food. Tendency to involuntary evacuations while urinating. Hemorrhoids most sensitive to all touch; even sheet of toilet paper is painful. Anal itching and prolapsus ani while urinating. Hemorrhoids during pregnancy; bluish, hot with violent stitches.

Pyrogenium

Coldness and chilliness. Septic fevers. Latent pyogenic condition. Chill begins in back. Temperature rises rapidly. Great heat with profuse hot sweat, but sweating does not cause a fall in temperature. Coffee-grounds vomiting. Vomits water, when it becomes warm in stomach. Tongue red and dry, clean, cracked, smooth, as though varnished. Throat dry, articulation difficult. Nausea and vomiting. Taste terribly fetid. Breath horrible. Intolerable tenesmus o both bladder and rectum. Bloated, sore, cutting pain. Diarrhea; horribly offensive, brown-black, painless, involuntary. Constipation, with complete inertia; obstinate from impaction. Stools large, black, carrion-like, or small black balls. Throbbing in vessels of neck. Numbness of hands, arms, feet. Aching in all limbs and bones.

Rhus Toxicodendron

Fever adynamic; restless, trembling. Tongue dry and brown, cracked; coated, except red triangular space at the tip; dry and red at edges. Corners of mouth ulcerated; fever-blisters around mouth and chin (Nat mur). Pain in maxillary joint. Sordes; bowels loose; great restlessness. Intermittent; chill, with dry cough and restlessness. During heat, urticaria. Hydro. Chilly, as if cold water were poured over him, followed by heat and inclination to stretch the limbs. Pains tearing in tendons, ligaments, and fasciae. Vertigo when rising. Extreme restlessness, with continued change of position. Delirium. Typhoid.

Appetite for any kind of food, with unquenchable thirst. Bitter taste. Nausea, vertigo, and bloated abdomen after eating.

Violent abdominal pains, relieved by lying on abdomen. Swelling of inguinal glands. Pain in region of ascending colon. Colic, compelling to walk bent. Excessive distention after eating. Rumbling of flatus on first rising but disappears with continued motion. Diarrhea of blood, slime, and reddish mucus. Dysentery, with tearing pains down thighs. Stools of cadaverous odor. Frothy, painless stools. Will often abort a beginning suppurative process near the rectum. Dysentery.

Skin red, swollen; itching intense. Vesicles, herpes; urticaria; pemphigus; erysipelas; vesicular suppurative forms. Glands swollen. Cellulitis. Burning eczematous eruptions with tendency to scale formation.

Baptisia Tinctoria

Chill, with rheumatic pains and soreness all over body. Heat all over, with occasional chills. Chill about 11 am. Adynamic fevers. Typhus fever. Typhoid fever. Shipboard fever. Livid spots all over body and limbs. Burning and heat in skin. Putrid ulcers with stupor, low delirium and prostration. Sleepless and restless. Nightmare and frightful dreams. Early deafness in typhoid conditions. Insomnia.

Mouth taste flat, bitter. Teeth and gums sore, ulcerated. Breath fetid. Tongue feels burned; yellowish-brown; edges red and shining. Dry and brown in center, with dry and glistening edges; surface cracked and sore. Can swallow liquids only, least solid food gags.

Dark redness of tonsils and soft palate. Constriction, contraction of esophagus (Cajeput). Great difficulty in swallowing solid food. Painless sore throat, and offensive discharge. Contraction at cardiac orifice.

Can swallow only liquids, vomiting due to spasm of esophagus. Gastric fever. No appetite. Constant desire for water. Sinking feeling at stomach. Pain in epigastric region. Feeling of hard substance. Cardiac orifice contracted convulsively and ulcerative inflammation of stomach and bowels.

Abdomen distended and rumbling. Soreness over region of gallbladder, with diarrhea. Stools very offensive, thin, dark, bloody. Soreness of abdomen, in region of liver. Dysentery.

Alstonia Sclerosis

Malarial diseases, with diarrhea, dysentery, anemia, feeble digestion, are the general conditions suggesting this remedy. Chronic Malaria. Typhoid. Characteristics are the gone sensation in stomach and sinking in abdomen, with debility. A tonic after exhausting fevers. Violent purging and cramp in bowels. Heat and irritation in lower bowels. Camp diarrhea, bloody stool, dysentery; diarrhea from bad water and malaria. Painless watery stools. Diarrhea immediately after eating.

Lachesis

Chilly in back; feet icy cold; hot flushes and hot perspiration. Paroxysm returns after acids. Intermittent fever every spring. Nauseous taste. Great loquacity. Amative. Sad Restless and uneasy

Any food causes distress. Pit of stomach painful to touch. Gnawing pressure made better by eating but returning in a few hours. Perceptible trembling movement in the epigastric region. Empty swallowing more painful than swallowing solids. Liver region sensitive, cannot bear anything around waist. Abdomen tympanitic, sensitive, painful. Constipated, offensive stool. Anus feels tight, as if nothing could go through it. Darting pain in rectum with sneezing or coughing. Hemorrhage from bowels like charred straw, black particles. Hemorrhoids protrude, become constricted, purplish. Stitches in them on sneezing or coughing. Constant urging in rectum, not for stool.

Hot perspiration, bluish, purplish appearance. Boils, carbuncles, ulcers, with bluish, purple surroundings. Dark blisters. Bed-sores, with black edges. Blue-black swellings. Pyemia; dissecting wounds. Purpura, with intense prostration. Senile erysipelas. Wens. Cellulitis. Varicose ulcers.

Bryonia Alba

Pulse full, hard, tense, and quick. Chill with external coldness, dry cough, stitches. Internal heat. Sour sweat after slight exertion. Easy, profuse perspiration. Rheumatic and typhoid marked by gastro-hepatic complications. Drowsy; starting when falling asleep. Yellow; pale, swollen, dropsical; hot and painful. Seborrhea. Dryness, sticking on swallowing, scraped and constricted. Tough mucus in larynx and trachea, loosened only after much hawking. Dryness of mouth, tongue, and throat, with excessive thirst. Tongue coated yellowish, dark brown, heavily white in gastric derangement. Bitter taste. Typhoid.

Nausea and faintness when rising up. Abnormal hunger, loss of taste. Thirst for large draughts. Vomiting of bile and water immediately after eating. Worse, warm drinks, which are vomited. Stomach sensitive to touch. Pressure in stomach after eating, as of a stone. Soreness in stomach when coughing. Dyspeptic ailments during summer heat. Sensitiveness of epigastrium to touch. Liver region swollen, sore, tensive. Burning pain, stitches; worse, pressure, coughing, breathing. Tenderness of abdominal walls. Constipation: stools hard, dry, as if burnt; large stools. Stools brown, thick, bloody.

Vaccination

For those traveling to high-risk areas, typhoid vaccines are now available. There are three forms of the vaccine available, allopathic an oral and an injectable form and Homeopathic oral form. People need to complete the vaccination at least 1-2 weeks (depending on the type of vaccine) before travel and depending on the type of vaccine.

The vaccine only protects from 2 to 5 years. The allopathic oral vaccine is contraindicated in patients with depressed immune systems, while Homeopathic vaccine is suitable for all ages and health conditions.

P. S: This article is only for doctors having good knowledge about Homeopathy and allopathy, for learning purpose(s).

For proper consultation and treatment, please visit our clinic.

None of above-mentioned medicine(s) is/are the full/complete treatment, but just hints for treatment; every patient has his/her own constitutional medicine.

To order medicine by courier, please send your details at WhatsApp– +923119884588

Dr. Sayyad Qaisar Ahmed (MD {Ukraine}, DHMS), Abdominal Surgeries, Oncological surgeries, Gastroenterologist, Specialist Homeopathic Medicines.

  Senior research officer at Dnepropetrovsk state medical academy Ukraine.

Location:  Al-Haytham clinic, Umer Farooq Chowk Risalpur Sadder (0923631023, 03119884588), K.P.K, Pakistan.

Find more about Dr Sayed Qaisar Ahmed at:

https://www.youtube.com/Dr Qaisar Ahmed

https://www.facebook.com/ahmed drqaisar

https://www.drqaisarahmed.com