Typhoid fever in children.

Abstract

The clinical course of 191 cases of typhoid fever in children was studied. 1. Typhoid fever is endemic throughout the year in Visakhapatnam with the maximum incidence in August and September. 2. The characteristic ladder like pattern of temperature was not always encountered. 3. Headache was more frequently noted than any other single symptom besides fever. 4. In a fatal case, the possibility of a second perforation in the course of the disease was observed. Prompt closure is recommended as the method of choice in all cases of perforation if they can stand anaesthesia and are not moribund. 5. Only thirty-eight per cent of cases showed leukopenia. 6. Diarrhoea, bronchopneumonia and toxaemia, though common, carried a relatively low mortality than perforation, hamorrhage and vascular failure which were of rare occurrence. The mortality rate was 6.7 per cent. 7. The average number of days within which the temperature touched normal after administration of chloramphenicol was eight. 8. The value of the combinations of corticosteroids with chloramphenicol and tetracycline with chloramphenicol was stressed, especially in cases of persistent fever in spite of adequate doses of chloramphenicol and in cases where the central nervous system was involved (meningitis or encephalopathy).