RESUMO
A study of 460 female patients who had been diagnosed as typhoid fever cases and dismissed from the "Hospital de Infecciosos" in Santiago, Chile, during the period 1960-1064 was made for the purpose of determining the rate of Salmonella typhi carriers among them. All of the patients had been treated with chloranphenicol during the acute stage of the disease
Over a two-year period more than 3,000 home visits and nearly 2,000 fecal cultures were made to detect carriers among both the index cases and their suspect contacts. Thirty-four carriers (7.4 per cent) of a minimum duration of two years and an average of 3.7 years' duration were detected and another eight carriers were found among the contacts
Attention is drown to the following associations: the ratio of carriers increases with age and depending on the length of time elapsed between the first sypmptoms and treatment; the ratio is significantly higher when there has been a relapse; there is observable association between being a carrier and the presence of liver disorders
The rate of typhoid fever among contacts exposed to a proven carrier was five times higher than among the families in which no carrier was detected(AU)