JAMA
Vol. 302 No. 8, pp. 825-914, August 26, 2009
http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl

Editorial
Addressing the Global Disease Burden of Typhoid Fever
Zulfiqar A. Bhutta; John Threlfall

[First 150 words per JAMA convention]
Salmonella ser Typhi infections are widely recognized as a major cause of morbidity globally, with an estimated 21 million cases and between 200 000 and 600 000 deaths annually.1-2 The divergent estimates likely represent differences in methods used for assessing age-specific burden of typhoid and attributable mortality.3 In some parts of the world, notably South Asia,4 young children represent a subgroup with the highest burden of typhoid and also may have disproportionately high rates of morbidity and complications.5 The report by Lynch et al6 in this issue of JAMA summarizes current knowledge about cases of typhoid fever in the United States and highlights the role of international travel, the need for broader immunization practices, and concerns regarding increases in antibacterial resistance.

In addition to the disease burden and mortality, emergence of drug resistance among S Typhi and Salmonella ser Paratyphi, which causes a…”