Typhoid fever - clinical and endoscopic aspects

A febre tifoide e uma infeccao intestinal causada pela Salmonella typhi, manifestada por quadro septicemico, ocorrendo incidencia elevada de casos em regioes com deficientes condicoes sanitarias, atraves do consumo de agua e alimentos contaminados por fezes de individuos doentes ou portadores assintomaticos. Em paises desenvolvidos os casos verificados sao geralmente “importados”. A observacao endoscopica das ulceracoes da ileocolite tifica tem sido raramente descrita, nao havendo referencias previas em Portugal da documentacao colonoscopica das ulceracoes tificas. Baseados num caso clinico, os autores fazem uma revisao sobre febre tifoide, no que concerne a patogenia, histopatologia, quadro clinico, aspectos endoscopicos das ulceracoes, e terapeutica antibiotica aconselhada nos casos de estirpes de Salmonella typhi sensiveis ou resistentes a varios grupos de antibioticos. Summary Typhoid fever is an enteric disease due to Salmonella typhi, presenting as a septicaemic illness, affecting an elevated number of people living in regions with poor sanitary conditions, acquired through the ingestion of water and food contaminated by feces of acutely ill patients or chronic carriers of the microorganism. In developed countries the disease is usually “imported”. Colonoscopic demonstration of ulcerations of typhoid ileocolitis is scarcely referred in medical literature, and there are no previous references to endoscopic aspects of typhoid ileocolitis in Portugal. Based on this, the authors review typhoid fever as far as are pathogeny, pathology, clinical picture and colonoscopic aspects are concerned as well as therapy recommended for susceptible and resistant strains of Salmonella typhi.