Now Reading: Typhoid tops India’s monsoon fevers, 1 in 4 tests positive
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Typhoid tops India’s monsoon fevers, 1 in 4 tests positive
Typhoid has emerged as the most confirmed monsoon fever in India, with a test-positivity rate of 25.5%, according to PharmEasy data up to August 12. That is significantly higher than dengue at…
Typhoid has emerged as the most confirmed monsoon fever in India, with a test-positivity rate of 25.5%, according to PharmEasy data up to August 12. That is significantly higher than dengue at 8.5%, chikungunya at 1.8%, and malaria at 1.4%. The three mosquito-borne diseases have seen a decline in positivity compared to last year, while typhoid remains stable.
The findings, part of PharmEasy's Fever Watch across 209 cities, show that seven of the 10 cities classified as high risk are driven by typhoid. Panaji recorded the highest overall risk score at 94, driven by dengue, while Bokaro and Gwalior followed at 79 and 78, both driven by typhoid. Gwalior and Amritsar logged the highest typhoid lab signal at 100.
The national fever risk score rose from 47 at the start of the season to 61 by August 12, with the weather and breeding signal climbing from 48 to 87. PharmEasy cautioned that some typhoid tests can produce false positives and stressed that Fever Watch is a risk indicator, not a diagnostic tool.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Typhoid's dominance in the data highlights a recurring public health blind spot: monsoon illness is often assumed to be mosquito-borne, but contaminated water and food drive bacterial infections that spike during rains. Under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, states are required to report typhoid cases, but underreporting remains common, especially in rural areas where laboratory confirmation is scarce. The seven high-risk cities driven by typhoid point to where water and sanitation infrastructure is under the most strain. With the monsoon season stretching into October, the next signal to watch is whether state health departments act on this lab data to target water quality testing and food hygiene in the worst-affected cities.
Source: businesstoday.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
