Multidrug resistant typhoid fever outbreak in Ercek Village-Van, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey: clinical profile, sensitivity patterns and response to antimicrobials.

The present study discusses the clinical features and treatment outcomes during an outbreak caused by multidrug resistant (MDR) Salmonella typhi isolates from Van, Turkey. Of the 867 typhoid fever patients from the same village, 154 (17.8%) were hospitalised. A total of 42 (27.3%) cultures were positive. All S. typhi isolates were resistant to chloramphenicol, ampicillin and co-trimoxazole. Ceftriaxone was the most commonly used antibiotic (89%). It was found that the time-to-fever defervescence and the length of the hospital stay were greater for patients who were treated by ciprofloxacin than ceftriaxone (P < 0.001). Inappropriate antibiotic treatment should be discouraged in order to prevent the development of resistant strains of S. typhi.