Paratyphoid fever is very similar to typhoid except slightly milder. It is transmitted from person to person, animal to person, or animal to animal. The scientific name for the paratyphoid bacteria is Salmonella paratyphi.
Most of the time a patient develops spleen enlargement. Thirty percent of patients have spots on their chest. The spots usually start to hemorrhage. Patients usually have intestinal complications resembling appendicitis.
Symptoms of paratyphoid fever include:
- high fever
- headache
- loss of appetite
- vomiting
- constipation or diarrhea
- rash
- cough
- intestinal bleeding
These symptoms usually occur two weeks after the disease is transmitted. The symptoms of paratyphoid are much less severe than those of typhoid.
Anyone traveling to infected areas can get the disease because it is very contagious. Men are more likely to get paratyphoid than women. Many of the cases occur in younger people with an average age of twenty years old.
In the U.S. Mexico India South America . Paratyphoid was an issue from around 1935 to around 1990.
Three to seventeen percent of all cases of enteric fever in India are paratyphoid fever.
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Paratyphoid: Description
