How pandemic might be resulting in reduced typhoid cases this year
New Delhi: Doctors in Delhi hospitals have claimed a downfall in the number of typhoid cases this year compared to last year. This they say reasons for this could include the inaccessibility of street food and immediate consumption of medicine, due to fear of COVID-19, even if they develop a fever.
Calling it a "drastic" fall in the number of typhoid cases, Dr Jatin Ahuja DM Infectious Diseases at AIIMS said, "According to my clinical experience, the cases have reduced drastically. Some of the major reasons for the reduction in cases are things like awareness about hand hygiene. In the lockdown and still, people prefer not to eat much outside. These are the main reasons that are contributing to decreasing cases. A third reason could be that people who have started developing a fever, they go to a local doctor or nearby clinic and are on the medicine Azithromycin, which is one of the rebel choices for typhoid."
Medical experts have pointed towards poor sanitisation conditions as the major reason for the disease. Speaking to Millennium Post, Dr Jagdeep Chugh, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Fortis Hospital Shalimar Bagh echoed Dr Ahuja's opinions.
"The number of people going out and eating junk food has come down and that type of contaminated food is also not available. One major reason is that people are still scared to eat outside food. Also, because of COVID-19, patients are coming early to doctors and taking medicines, which is reducing the severity of the infection,"
he added.
However, Dr Puneet Khanna, Head of Respiratory Medicine at Manipal Hospital said that the numbers have not decreased but there is merely a delay in the diagnoses. "Due to COVID-19, the diagnosis is being delayed because whenever there is fever, people go for COVID tests or quarantine themselves and take symptomatic treatment. Besides, I don't see any reason why it has come down," he
added.
Meanwhile, Aakash Healthcare Super-Speciality Hospital in Dwarka said that they received only 50 patients so far who had typhoid and Influenza in the last two months. The hospital stated that the count usually went up to 100 to 150 in previous monsoon seasons.
"We are not receiving the cases of typhoid that usually comes in this season," Vikramjeet Singh, senior consultant, Department of Internal Medicine at the hospital said.
The number of typhoid cases across Delhi in 2018 was estimated to be over 27,000, up from about 18,000 typhoid cases in 2017. The highest number of cases of about 48,000 was recorded in the state
in 2012.
