In January 2022, a cluster of around 30 people were hospitalized due to typhoid fever in Manaulanan village, North Cotabato, The Philippines. The village does not have access to potable water. In response to the outbreak, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) provided medicine and water purification tablets to the residents of Manaulanan village. Fortunately, there were no reported mortalities.
The two most impactful public health interventions to date are clean drinking water and vaccines, both of which are the best solution to prevent a recurrence of this situation. Certain countries have recently added to their Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) a typhoid vaccine. With 2 types of typhoid vaccines available, inactivated intramuscular or live-attenuated oral, it would be beneficial to customize the EPI within a country’s region based on endemic diseases.
By Merlin Sanicas Aix-Marseille University Team Antibody Therapeutics and Immunotargeting at Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille Laboratoire Adhésion et Inflammation
