typhoid vaccination at home

what is typhoid?

Typhoid fever simply referred to as typhoid is a bacterial infection resulting in high fever, weakness, abdominal pain, constipation and headaches. Typhoid fever is also referred to by several names associated with its symptoms like; gastric fever, slow fever, enteric fever and pathogenic fever among others.  The name ‘typhoid’ essentially means resembling typhus, which is a completely different disease, owing to the similarity of the symptoms.

The chief cause behind typhoid fever is the bacterium salmonella typhi also called salmonella enterica serotype typhi. It mainly affects the intestines and blood of a person and is spread by the faecal – oral route. The virus enters the human body through contaminated food and water and also poor hygiene and poor sanitation. If proper treatment is not sought in a timely manner, then typhoid can prove fatal.

Typhoid fever is pretty common in India and other developing countries where a vast majority of people do not have access to clean drinking water and hygiene facilities. Typhoid fever mainly affects children and young adults and is predominant in the 5 – 20 years age group.

The main symptoms of typhoid include; lethargy, loss of appetite, headaches, chest congestion, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, rash and high fever. Other complications associated with typhoid are pneumonia, kidney or bladder infection, meningitis, delirium, hallucinations, etc. The disease is mainly diagnosed by blood, bone marrow or stool culture test.

what are the treatment for typhoid?

The typhoid fever is mainly treated with antibiotic which kill the salmonella typhi bacteria. If relapses of the disease occur, then it is retreated with antibiotics. Following a proper antibiotics typhoid treatment a person can witness improvement within a day or two and can recover within 7 to 10 days. In severe cases of typhoid, doctors can also operate upon the individual and remove the gallbladder, which is the main site of chronic infection.

typhoid prevention

Prompt thyroid treatment of typhoid leads to successful recovery, while if left untreated it can result in kidney failure or intestinal bleeding due to intestine perforation by the bacteria and can be fatal. Following proper sanitation and hygiene practices form the first line of defence against the disease and secondly getting typhoid vaccination is necessary to stop the disease infection from affecting you. The typhoid vaccination is not 100% affective in thyroid prevention and hence caution should be exercised in eating fruits and vegetables handled by street vendors or food from street vendors, as they can be carriers of the disease without showing any symptoms of the disease and drinking bottled or purified water. Proper hand washing also helps in thyroid prevention.

typhoid vaccination

Typhoid vaccination comes in three forms one is a typhoid injection, the other is an oral vaccine and the third is the typhoid conjugate vaccine. These three types of typhoid fever vaccine are;

• Inactivated typhoid vaccine –It is a one off dose of Vi Capsular polysaccharide vaccine or (ViPS) typhoid vaccine injection and the typhoid vaccine can take about two weeks to work and is not advised for kids below two years of age.
• Live typhoid vaccine – Live typhoid vaccine or Ty21a is an oral typhoid vaccine and consists of four doses to be given two day apart from each typhoid vaccine. This type of typhoid vaccine is not recommended for children six year of age. It usually takes around a week for the typhoid fever vaccine to work and is stronger and more effective form of typhoid vaccine in the two but, it has its more typhoid vaccine side effects associated with it.
• Typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) – TCV vaccines is a special typhoid vaccine for babies and can be used on children between 6 months to 23 months. The TCV typhoid vaccines for babies are safe to use and are pretty effective in preventing typhoid fever in babies.

typhoid vaccine name

There are several brands of both the types of typhoid vaccination available in India. Some of the Indian typhoid vaccine names are as follows;

• Biovac Typhoid (injection)
• Peda – Typh (Capsule)
• Shantyph (injection)
• Typbar (injection)
• Typherix
• Typhim – VI
• Typhivax
• Typho – VI (injection)
• Typhoral (capsule)
• Tyvax – VI plus (injection)
• Tyvax –VI plus 150 mcg
• Vactyph (injection)

typhoid vaccine booster

The inactivated typhoid vaccine injection requires a booster typhoid injection shot every two years, while the live typhoid vaccination needs a booster shot every five years.

what are side eddects of typhoid vaccine

Sometimes the typhoid vaccination leads to adverse effect in certain individuals but, they are nothing too serious and usually subside within 3 to 7 days. The common typhoid vaccine side effects are;

• Fever
• Headache
• Soreness of the injection site
• Nausea and vomiting,
• Stomach pain
• Diarrhoea

Some of the complications that may be associated with typhoid vaccine are difficulty in breathing, swelling of the tongue, face lips and throat. In such cases emergency medical help should be sought.

People having severe allergic reaction to the first dose of the oral typhoid vaccine should refrain from getting booster dose. Children below the age of six years should also not be given this form of the vaccine. People suffering from fever should wait for it to subside before getting typhoid vaccination. Also if you happen to be under prior antibiotic treatment do inform your doctor about it.

typhoid vaccine price

The typhoid vaccine cost is depended on varied factors. The main determining factors for typhoid vaccine cost are the type of the vaccine used the volume of the typhoid vaccine. What kind of typhoid vaccination is used is depended upon a doctor’s discretion and personal choice. The typhoid vaccine cost also differs according the brand of the typhoid vaccine and the doctor’s and clinic charges.

how can we help?

World health organisation has highly recommended the compulsory introduction of typhoid vaccination for the effective prevention of the spread of typhoid. Looking at the importance of typhoid vaccination Portea offers typhoid vaccination at home so you don’t have to step out of your house for such minor procedure. Getting the typhoid vaccination at home is also pretty economical and advantageous in the sense that you save on travelling and varied other costs of getting the vaccination at a regular clinic. So, if you need to get vaccinated just give us a call and our representative doctor will visit you at your home and will give the vaccination after assessing you.