After the recent malaria threat, an antibiotic-resistant strain of typhoid bacterium has spread globally and is posing a public health threat, especially in developing countries, according to a new study.
With contributions from over two-dozen countries, it has been shown that the existing problem of antibiotic resistant typhoid was driven by H58, a single clade of bacteria family.
"The data was produced by a consortium of 74 collaborators from leading laboratories, working on typhoid and described one of the most comprehensive sets of genome data on a single human infectious agent," said Dr Vanessa Wong, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Dr Wong further said, "It represents the best global co-operation in the scientific community. Typhoid affects around 30 million people each year, and global surveillance is critical at this stage to address the ever-increasing public health threat caused by multi-drug resistant typhoid in many developing countries around the world."
The H58 clade of Typhi has displaced other kinds of typhoid fever strains that have been established over the years and phases throughout the typhoid endemic world, the disease's genetic architecture has been completely transformed.
