A child has been suffering from diarrhea for some time and after about a week he also develops a fever. It whines a bit and just looks sick. There is a good chance that the child has typhoid fever. What is this, how do you get it and what are the symptoms?

Typhoid

Typhoid fever is a serious infectious disease that mainly occurs in countries where good hygiene is not possible. People with this infectious disease usually contract it in the (sub)tropics, but this disease is rare in the Netherlands.

Phenomena

Common symptoms of typhoid fever are;

• Diarrhea at first (not always),
• After a week of high fever,
• A severe general feeling of illness.

Contamination and consequences

Typhoid fever is caused by poor hygiene, which means that you can also get it by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. The stool of a sick child also contains bacteria that can cause typhoid fever! These bacteria can be transmitted to others via the hands.

Exclusion from daycare, playgroup or school

With some infectious diseases, a child is not welcome at a daycare center, playgroup or school for a while because of the high risk of infection. The GGD (Municipal Health Care) has drawn up rules for this. Children with typhoid fever are not allowed to attend daycare, playgroup or school. A laboratory test is carried out and until the results of this test are known, any brothers or sisters of the sick child are also not welcome in the institution.

Report to the GGD

For some infectious diseases, a treating physician is obliged to report to the GGD that a child has this infectious disease. This is also the case with typhoid fever and the GGD keeps the childcare centers informed about progress.