Risk Factors Associated with Extensively Drug-Resistant Typhoid in an Outbreak Setting of Lyari Town Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Typhoid fever is endemic in Pakistan, with high annual incidence rates. An outbreak of extensively drug-resistant typhoid fever that first started in the Hyderabad District, Sindh Province, in November 2016 immediately spread to the entire province. We conducted an age-matched case-control study to assess the risk factors of typhoid fever in an outbreak setting of Lyari Town, Karachi. We enrolled 82 patients with blood culture-confirmed Salmonella typhi between August 2019 to December 2019, and 82 age-matched hospital and 164 age-matched community control subjects. In a matched conditional logistic regression model, consumption of meals outside the home more than once per month was associated significantly with developing culture-confirmed typhoid fever compared with no consumption of food outside the home (odds ratio, 4.11). Hygiene of the environment in which food is prepared, practices of adult food handlers, access to clean water, and food legislation play significant roles in the spread of typhoid fever.