Multidrug resistant typhoid fever: study of an outbreak in Calcutta.

Of 103 cases of typhoid fever admitted to the Pediatric Wing of our hospital during the months of August 1989 to April 1990, 82.5% were resistant to chloramphenicol, ampicillin and co-trimoxozole. Nearly 87% children were in the age group of 3-10 years. Fever was present in all and splenomegaly in 90.2% cases. Urinary retention during the course of illness was present in 2 cases. The positivity rate of blood culture, bone marrow culture and Widal test was 83.7, 100 and 13.5%, respectively. Majority of the strains were of Phage 51-Type I. For the treatment of multidrug resistant cases gentamicin and furazolidine proved ineffective. Ciprofloxacin was tried in 85 cases and was found to be effective in all cases with no side effects.