In today’s health segment, we are going to be talking about Typhoid fever.
Typhoid fever is caused by some micro organisms and the characteristics is usually the fact that you have a feverish condition that if unattended to, can lead to a situation as if you are comatose or unconscious.
This fever goes and comes all the time and even when it subsides, it picks up again. it is brought about through unhygienic acts like dirty hands, dirty environments and unclean foods. You hear people say most times that “Africans don’t die of germs” but that is totally wrong. We die of germs everyday in our numbers,just that the only ignorant fact is that we never know that germs are the cause and most times we are very quick in attributing deaths to remote conditions or control conditions from our villages.
For you to have Typhoid, you must have ingested these germs into your system through the food you eat and water you drink. This is why it is very risky to buy food from vendors because we are not there when the food is being prepared. For example, we buy gala from road side vendors but because of the way they are stored improperly, they become harmful to the body.
The other serious complication of Typhoid is when they go and form certain things like dots around the intestines.These dots perforates and then of course, the content of the small and large intestine which is stool and food materials will now go into the cover of the peritoneum, thereby leading to the inflammation of the peritoneum which is called peritonitis and it can be very fatal. This is why we hear cases of someone dying of stomach pains when he/she has typhoid fever
We can only prevent Typhoid fever by having good personal and community hygiene.We need to be careful with what we put in our mouths, always remember to wash vegetables and fruits properly and thoroughly with salt or vinegar before consuming them.
We also need to protect ourselves properly when we are around someone that has been diagnosed with Typhoid fever to avoid contracting it as well. That way, we will be able to prevent it.
It is also very important to take vaccinations. This is because some vaccines will protect you for a couple of years provided you don’t expose yourself to germs again. Don’t feel because you have been inoculated with the vaccine, you are automatically free to do whatever that can expose you to Typhoid and it won’t happen.
Other vaccines can protect you for life. they are usually in form of tablets or injections and can cost up to N15,000 although efforts are being made to bring the prices lower so that everybody can afford it.
It is very important that you go to a healthcare facility to run medical tests, so that they can start on time to know the problem and how to treat it so as to avoid the complications aforementioned.
