What is Typhoid fever

TYPHOID FEVER Meaning

Typhoid fever is also known as enteric fever and is caused by the Salmonella typhi bacteria. While typhoid fever is rare in industrialized countries, it still remains a serious health threat in the developing countries like India, especially for children.¹

The typhoid fever spreads through contaminated food and water, or through close contact with another infected person. The signs and symptoms usually include high fever, headache, abdominal pain, and either constipation or diarrhea in most of the sufferers.¹

While most people with typhoid fever may feel better within a few days of starting antibiotics, a small number still die of the various complications.¹

Typhoid fever is not mentioned ‘as it is’ in Ayurveda; there are many schools of thought in explaining the description of Typhoid fever. It may correlated to “Sannipata jwara” in general. Some opine that it matches a condition described as Santata Jwara - one of the types of Vishama jwara described by Acharya Charaka.²

Charaka categorically mentions that a jwara (fever) with an imbalanced spread all across the body through rasavaha strotas (blood vessels) causes stiffness. It manifests its symptoms very quickly and either is cured or otherwise kills the patient on 12th, 10th or 7th day. It is extremely difficult to endure this type of fever.²

If the doshas involved in Sannipata type of Jwara are similar in property to the season (Kala), Dhatus (Dushya) and physical constitution (Prakruti), then the condition is Asadhya (incurable).²

If the dhatus and waste products such as urine, stool and flatus are purified, then on 7th, 10th, or 12th days the fever would subside. However, if dhatus and malas are not purified then this fever is mortal for the patient on those days. Even if these dhatus are partially purified, the patient dies.²

It may continue for a longer period and treatment of this disease is extremely difficult. Hence, the physician should first administer Apatarpana (fasting) treatment, followed by other treatments for fever.²