Typhoid fever is an illness that is caused by bacteria. The symptoms of typhoid include a diminished appetite, headache, bodily aches and pains, fever, fatigue, and diarrhea. Fever can reach 103 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (39 to 40 degrees Celsius) in those with typhoid. This illness has an incubation period that can last for up to two weeks. Once typhoid symptoms are evident, they may last up to four to six weeks.

Chest congestion may occur among the other symptoms of typhoid. However, it does not affect everyone who develops the illness. Likewise pain and discomfort in the abdominal area may occur as another symptom. After the second or third week of illness, a patient without further complications may experience some improvement in the symptoms of typhoid; about one in 10 patients will have recurring symptoms, even after noticing improvement for a week or two. Interestingly, those who have been treated with antibiotics may be more likely to have relapses than others.

Salmonella typhi typically causes typhoid. Sometimes Salmonella paratyphi causes symptoms of typhoid as well. However, illness caused by this bacterium is often less severe than that caused by Salmonella typhi. Humans are typically exposed to these bacteria by food or water that are contaminated by the stool of someone who is carrying or infected with the disease.

Sometimes symptoms of typhoid are so mild that it isn't diagnosed or really even noted. Some people who have such mild cases of the disease go on to become carriers. This means they are not noticeably ill from it but can pass the disease on to others for years after their initial exposure. About three to five percent of those with typhoid become carriers.

The main treatment for symptoms of typhoid is antibiotic medication, which has significantly increased the rate of survival from the disease. Today, about one to two percent of people with symptoms of typhoid die; years ago, about one-fifth of patients died. In fact, treatment with antibiotics often helps patients to start feeling better in just a couple of days and recover in a week to 10 days instead of weeks later. Even those who have become chronic carriers need not be stuck with that status indefinitely. Prolonged antibiotic treatment and/or removal of the gallbladder, the organ in which chronic infection often takes up residence, may relieve them of their carrier status.