The treatment of typhoid fever with chloramphenicol: A clinical study of 330 cases of enteric fever treated in Egypt

Abstract

1. (1) Three hundred cases of typhoid and 30 cases of paratyphoid fever were treated with chloramphenicol in the course of a year in a hospital in Egypt. Most of the typhoid cases came from two large outbreaks; the circumstances attending these are briefly described. 2. (2) The clinical features and the clinical, bacteriological, serological and immunological response to treatment are described. Various schedules of chloramphenicol treatment were employed in an attempt to reduce the incidence of relapses; some patients received vaccine therapy in addition. The results of this investigation are described and discussed. 3. (3) The side-effects of chloramphenicol therapy are described and discussed, and also the complications of typhoid fever, in particular water and electrolyte deficiency. 4. (4) Some of the observations made and problems arising out of them are further discussed in more general terms.