‘Frightening’ drug-resistant strain of typhoid spreads in Pakistan
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/frightening-drug-resistant-strain-typhoid-spreads-pakistan
The close proximity of sewage and drinking water in Hyderabad, Pakistan, likely spread difficult-to-treat bacteria that cause potentially deadly typhoid fever.
An antibiotic-defying strain of the bacterium that causes typhoid fever is gaining a foothold in Pakistan, leading some researchers to warn that it could turn the clock back 70 years, when surviving the disease was more a matter of luck than treatment. In the past 6 months, more than 2000 people in Pakistan have been infected with extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Salmonella typhi, according to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad. Only one oral antibiotic, azithromycin, works against the XDR strain, and the other options—expensive intravenous (IV) drugs—are impractical for widespread use in Pakistan and other low-income nations. S. typhi experts worry that the outbreak could soon spill into other countries.