A study of 122 cases of typhoid fever in Canton Hospital (1945-1946)

Typhoid fever is an acute generalized infection caused by the Eberthella typhoea. The clear conception and the differentiation of which from typhus was only made in the past fifty years. Pathologically, the lymphoid tissues of the body show the greatest changes; there are hyperplasia and ulceration of Peyer’s patches and the solitary lymph follicles of the intestinal tract, swelling of the mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen. The clinical manifestations, variable in degree, are high fever, slow pulse, a rose- colored eruption, abdominal tenderness, and enlargement of the spleen. The disease is universally distributed, occurring in practically all parts of the world. Contaminated water and infected food are its chief sources. Fingers, food, and flies frequently account for its local distribution in homes and hospitals. In former years it was a very prevalent infection during the summer and early autumn months in the most populated areas of the temperate climates. During the past twenty-five years there has been a marked decrease in the incidence death rate of this disease in the foreign countries. The average mortality rate of typhoid cases in 1910 in U.S. was 12.4 per cent, while in 1940 it had fallen to 0.39 per cent. This was due to the improvement both in therapeutic and prophylactic measures. In China, it is different. Typhoid fever becomes more and more well-known. During the War II, an epidemic broke up regularly every year in the interior. Even in Canton, the statistical information of Canton Hospital showed no marked tendency of decrease in incidence and death rate of typhoid cases. Thus typhoid fever is still considered as a disease of importance in a Chinese hospital while in foreign countries such disease is seldom met with. The following is a study of 122 cases in Canton Hospital, from November 1945 to October 1946