People traveling to Pakistan at risk of drug-resistant typhoid fever

Health officials say anyone traveling to Pakistan is at risk of developing drug-resistant typhoid fever. From 2016 to 2018, 29 U.S. patients who had recently been to Pakistan were diagnosed with typhoid fever, which can cause a range of severe symptoms and is treated with antibiotics. Five of those patients were children who developed an extremely drug-resistant — and therefore, extremely difficult to treat — form of the fever. The CDC is concerned that the strain of typhoid involved in Pakistan's outbreak might become resistant to azithromycin, the only oral antibiotic that treats it. Health officials say anyone traveling to Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh should visit a doctor or a travel clinic at least two weeks before their trip to talk about precautions to protect against typhoid.