Chapter XVI 



TYPHOID FEVER 



Prevalence Typhoid fever is one of the most 

 widespread of the infectious diseases. It pre- 

 vails more or less in all countries. It occurs in 

 the tropics and in far northern and southern lat- 

 itudes ; at sea levels and in the mountains ; in 

 the city and in the country; and practically 

 wherever man may go and where local condi- 

 tions do not prevent the dissemination of the 

 disease. The typhoid bacillus has about the 

 same limits of latitude and longitude as man 

 himself, and no common race is known to be im- 

 mune from the disease. In the United States 

 there are comparatively few communities of one 

 thousand inhabitants or more which, during any 

 period of twelve consecutive months within the 

 last decade, have been entirely free from typhoid 

 fever. According to the United States Census 

 Report for 1900, the typhoid death rate in this 

 country was 461/2 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 

 1908 the death toll from typhoid fever was no 

 less than 35,000 in the United States. 



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