Eliminating Salmonella Typhi

The first priority for the Fondazione Achille Sclavo is to accelerate already-existing projects to eliminate diseases caused by Salmonellae, which primarily affect children.
The years when typhoid and paratyphoid fevers killed the rich and the poor alike in the big cities of industrialized countries ended: today only the poor, the poorest of the poor who live in the shanty towns in Low-Income Countries, are struck. 

Salmonellosis is caused by a series of bacteria from the salmonella family: besides Salmonella Typhi, Salmonella Paratyphi and non-typhoid Salmonella both cause hundreds of thousands of deaths in the poorest areas of the world.

Typhoid Fever, an enteric infectious disease caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), has been deadly for centuries, and still is today in many lesser developed parts of the world, where mortality is still quite high.

Typhoid and Paratyphoid (Enteric) Fever; Jason B., HarrisW., Abdullah Brooks

Hunter’s Tropical Medicine and Emerging Infectious Diseases (Tenth Edition)2020, Pages 608-616

Vaccination against Salmonella Typhi

Control and treatment of typhoid fever had become more and more troublesome due to a sharp increase in antimicrobial-resistant strains, diagnostic tests still not being as sensitive as needed, and clinical data not supporting the use of polysaccharide vaccines in younger age groups.

Humans are the main carriers of the bacteria and infection occurs generally through ingestion of infected food or water. Prevention requires accurate personal and environmental hygiene (including the identification of asymptomatic carriers), attention to the quality of food and water and vaccinations.

The introduction of a vaccine entails a series of complex activities before being brought to fruition to the LICs, they include:

TODAY IT IS POSSIBLE TO PREVENT ALL DEATHS DUE TO TYPHOID IN CHILDREN AND OLDER AGE GROUPS.

Vi conjugate vaccines have been developed and are now available and produced in India and elsewhere also thanks to the involvement of Fondazione Sclavo and Sclavo Vaccines Association:

– supporting the vaccine clinical development,

– presenting in session and with posters at the International Conference on Sustainable Development Practice (ICSDP)

– meeting with international institutions like GAVI, WHO, SDSN,

– presenting to the SDSN a Solutions Initiative Project: Sustainable typhoid (+paratyphoid) vaccinefor Low-Income Countries.

This is our goal: a world free of illnesses caused by salmonellae, thanks to vaccines to be brought to fruition for poor Countries within the next ten years.