ABSTRACT
We report an outbreak of typhoid fever between April and June 2019 in the Surveillance for Enteric Fever in India cohort, a pediatric cohort from four contiguous semi-urban settlements of Vellore in South India. This cohort of children 6 months to 15 years of age was under surveillance from October 2017 to December 2019. A clustering of typhoid cases in the cohort was noted with reference to time, place, and person. The overall typhoid attack rate in the cohort was 0.9%, with the highest attack rate of 1.7% being documented in one of the four areas. The rate of hospitalization and complications in children who were typhoid positive during the outbreak was 28% and 2%, respectively. Given the background of suboptimal water, sanitation, and hygiene, and the risk of typhoid fever outbreaks in these settings, it is imperative that a typhoid vaccine be considered for introduction as a pragmatic preventive approach.
