Kelantan health department director Dr Zaini Hussin said the Kota Bharu health office had been conducting screening tests since June 20 on staff and students experiencing typhoid symptoms. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: Five students in a cluster of 22 suspected cases at a secondary school in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, have been confirmed to have typhoid.
The New Straits Times reported Kelantan health department director Dr Zaini Hussin as saying 16 of the other 17 students had been warded at the Tumpat Hospital and Tengku Anis Hospital in Pasir Puteh, while one had sought outpatient treatment.
He said the students started to show symptoms on May 7, and the Kota Bharu health office had been conducting screening tests since June 20 on staff and students experiencing typhoid symptoms.
“Among the symptoms of typhoid are fever, diarrhoea, stomachache, vomiting, nausea, constipation, headache, fatigue and lack of appetite,” Bernama reported him as saying.
Typhoid is a contagious disease involving the infection of the digestive tract by salmonella typhi bacteria.
Zaini said the life-threatening infection spreads through several ways, including food or drink contaminated with faeces containing the bacteria due to poor sanitation or hygiene.
“Staff or students with symptoms of the disease are asked to immediately inform the school management to get an assessment,” he said.
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