Australian Woman Hospitalized with Typhoid Fever After Trip to India
Develops Rare Complication: Septic Arthritis
A woman in her 30s from Australia experienced a severe case of typhoid fever, resulting in a three-week hospitalization and temporary inability to walk, after eating sashimi at a high-end Japanese restaurant while traveling in India.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail, Daniel Hendricks, a 32-year-old resident of Melbourne, Australia, recently revealed via social networking service (SNS) that she contracted typhoid fever after eating sashimi at a luxury Japanese restaurant in India. The video she posted has garnered over 400,000 views and has become a hot topic.
Hendricks explained that although the appearance of the food at the time seemed suspicious, she forced herself to eat it because of the high price she had paid. She experienced abdominal pain throughout the rest of her trip but dismissed it as unimportant. Even after returning home, she suffered from fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and loss of appetite, but assumed these were simply aftereffects of travel.
However, her symptoms gradually worsened over time. After exercising, the pain intensified and her back became stiff. In February, while at work, she experienced blurred vision and shortness of breath, coming close to fainting. Hendricks lost control of her body for three hours and was eventually transported to the hospital by ambulance. After multiple tests, she was diagnosed with typhoid fever. She endured severe muscle cramps and pain that could not be relieved even with painkillers, forcing her to remain bedridden for a long period.
Typhoid fever is primarily transmitted through food or water contaminated with the feces or urine of an infected person. In the UK, most cases are contracted while traveling in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan. Hendricks believes the sashimi she ate may have been thawed in contaminated water. During treatment, she also developed septic arthritis, a rare complication of typhoid fever, and suffered from severe inflammation and pain in her hip joint due to infection. Hendricks was hospitalized for three weeks and underwent six weeks of antibiotic treatment, during which she had to relearn how to walk.
Typhoid fever, caused by the Salmonella bacteria, has an incubation period of about one to two weeks, after which symptoms such as a high fever around 40 degrees Celsius, headache, and diarrhea appear. Initial symptoms resemble those of the flu, including chills, aching joints in the head and limbs, and general malaise. In severe cases, complications such as intestinal bleeding or meningitis can occur. Between 70% and 80% of cases are caused by transmission through contaminated water. As the illness progresses, after two to three weeks, patients may experience persistent high fever around 40 degrees Celsius and extreme exhaustion. A rash may appear on the body, and bloody stools can also occur. Not all typhoid patients experience diarrhea; some may have constipation instead.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, there were approximately 3,000 to 5,000 domestic cases of typhoid fever annually before the 1970s. However, since the 1980s, the incidence has sharply declined, and recent reports indicate that there are now about 200 cases per year, with more than half of these being imported from overseas.
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