Typhoid Fever in the African

In early days in tropical Africa, typhoid fever was said by the pioneer doctors to be rare. With the growth of cities, often in advance of waterborne sanitation, typhoid fever is now one of the commonest fevers encountered. Whereas paratyphoid A and B are rarely encountered, Salmonella typhi is the usual organism responsible for enteric fever in Africa. Although there are no essential differences in typhoid fever in the African, the disease appears unusual to doctors trained in countries where it is rare, though their fathers of some 50 years ago would be quite at home now in the typhoid wards of an African hospital during an epidemic.

A CAJM article on typhoid in 1950's Africa.