The UK could be facing another medical crisis as typhoid, an illness that has been known for more than 1,000 years, is building up a resistance to the antibiotics used to treat it.
Antibiotics are the only way to effectively treat the highly contagious infection, but researchers say the bacterium that causes it is evolving to become more drug-resistant, the Daily Express reports. The bacterium, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S Typhi), has reportedly been building up its resistance to oral antibiotics for the last 30 years.
After sequencing genomes of 3,489 different S Typhi strains contracted from 2014 to 2019 in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, experts found that one strain particular strain was very resistant. Called (XDR) Typhi, it is not only resistant to trademark antibiotics such as ampicillin and chloramphenicol, but is also building up a resilience to newer drugs too. These include treatments such as fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins.
