How did you know that you have a typhoid?

Answer 1

That is simple question to ask but difficult to answer! You can to serial Widal test for the case of febrile illness. But then Widal test is not very sensitive. The blood culture is more sensitive in first week, but then rarely done. The contributor was an intern and was on round with professor of pediatrics. She pointed to one patient and said that without regards to Widal test, this child has got typhoid fever. It took almost six years before contributor developed that skill. There are few points in typhoid fever. Patient can not tell since when he became ill. So insidious onset is there, at times acute, specially in paratyphoid fever. So the fever comes in what is called as step ladder fashion. Then the temperature does not go above 104 degree Fahrenheit. By the time he gets that much fever, he is profoundly 'Toxic'. He can not walk to bathroom without support of two persons. There is 'Relative bradycardia'. Headache is prominent from the onset. Only other fever in which you get headache is malaria. Then response to treatment is never dramatic. Fever drops step by step over three to five days. Sudden response to therapy go against the diagnosis of typhoid.