[Epidemiological observations on the typhoid fever outbreak 1974 in the south-west of the Federal Republic of Germany (author's transl)].

A typhoid fever epidemic broke out in Baden-Württemberg during October and December 1974, 436 cases could be analyzed statistically. The interval between the date of earliest symptoms and the registration at the health-office was 18 days. This was the double respectively the triple of previous typhoid outbreaks. This interval results from a prolonged stay at home and a hospitalisation time with an average of 5 days from the hospitalisation to the registration. The interval between hospitalisation and the definitive diagnosis was 19 hours. The analysis of the age and sex incidence shows a high percentage of 15 to 30 years old women, which is due to the occupational exposition. The low morbidity of the 50 to 65 years old men points at a pre-exposition during World War II.