Typhoid’s Drug-Resistant Wake-Up Call Goes Global
The typhoid fever bacterium is rapidly gaining extensive drug resistance and spreading internationally, threatening all oral antibiotics as resistance reaches both frontline drugs and newer treatments like azithromycin. A 2014–2019 genome study of 3,489 S. Typhi samples from South Asia and beyond shows accelerating spread of extensively drug-resistant Typhi, prompting calls for expanded vaccination and new antibiotic research to avert a global typhoid crisis.