Salmonella: an underestimated cause of infant mortality

Salmonella infections are one of the major causes of infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to scientific work which highlights how the pathology linked to this common bacterium remains underestimated around the world.

In the journal supplement Clinical Infectious Diseases, the authors draw attention to particularly high rates of infections and deaths caused by salmonella. To base their remarks, they drew on 19 studies carried out in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, South Africa… The objective being to better identify the sources of transmission and to model epidemics. .

20% mortality

“Salmonella infections generate typhoid fevers, a disease widely known to the general public, but also Non-Typhoid Salmonellosis (NTS), considered a diarrheal disease in the West, while in the sub-Saharan region, c ‘is one of the main causes of sepsis,’ explain the authors of the publication.

NTS affects children and babies, especially those already suffering from malaria and malnutrition, as well as adults infected with HIV, the scientists say. Mortality rates reach 20%.

Treatment-resistant bacteria

“Studies show that typhoid fever remains an underestimated problem in Africa. They also provide new data to support estimates of the global burden of this disease. In 2010, NTS caused 3.4 million infections and 681,000 deaths worldwide, with a majority of cases in Sub-Saharan Africa ”.

The authors thus call for urgent measures in the face of this scourge, which is still too undervalued on the continent, which “urgently requires investments in vaccine and non-vaccine policies”.

These needs are all the more urgent as the salmonella detected in Africa have become resistant to most of the antibiotics available to treat the disease. “As treatment options diminish, we must redouble our efforts to prevent these severe intestinal infections,” the authors further conclude.