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Despite having plagued humans for millennia<\/a>, typhoid fever<\/a> is rarely considered a threat in developed countries today. But this ancient killer is still very much a danger in our modern world<\/a>.<\/p>\n Research published in 2022<\/a> revealed the bacterium that causes typhoid fever is evolving extensive drug resistance, and is rapidly replacing strains that aren’t resistant.<\/p>\n Currently, antibiotics are the only effective treatment for typhoid, caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica<\/em><\/a> serovar Typhi (S.<\/span> Typhi). Yet over the past three decades, the bacterium’s resistance to oral antibiotics has been growing and spreading.<\/p>\n In their study, scientists from multiple countries sequenced the genomes of 3,489 S. Typhi strains contracted from 2014 to 2019 in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, and found a rise in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Typhi.<\/p>\n Watch the video below for a summary of the study:<\/p>\n