Typhoid and Malaria

QUESTION:

Since i was suffering with fever for 5 days I consulted a doctor, have undergone blood test, and got typhoid as positive, but the treatment didn’t work. I was tested for malaria and result was positive. Ii’ve been given chloroquine for three days and primaquine for 28 days. After chloroquine was completed I started using primaquine. During this time I got fever and I got typhoid positive. My question is though iI’ve been treated for typhoid before malaria is conformed why it has come again?

ANSWER:

Typhoid and malaria are very different illnesses, caused by different disease organisms. Typhoid is caused by a Salmonella bacterium, whereas malaria is caused by single-celled animals, called protozoa, of the genus Plasmodium.

Typhoid is usually transmitted by eating food or drinking water which has been contaminated by sewage or handled by someone else with typhoid fever. It is usually treated with antibiotics; however, these antibiotics do not prevent re-infection with the disease. The best way to prevent re-infection is through washing food thoroughly in clean (boiled) water and by washing hands regularly, especially after going to the bathroom. There is also a vaccine against typhoid which you can get which will prevent further re-infection. As such, if you think you have typhoid again, you will need to visit your doctor again for more treatment, as it is unrelated to your malaria infection (apart that you might have been weakened by one infection, leaving you more susceptible to a second disease). While at the doctor, you should also have another test for malaria to ensure that the treatment was successful.