Typhoid fever can be fatal – to humans only. As the bacterium responsible for this sometimes devastating disease is unable to infect other species, researchers have looked for the genes responsible to remove it from animals to develop new therapies.
Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) causes typhoid fever, but only in humans, a phenomenon known as host restriction. Living in macrophages, cells of the immune system devoted to killing pathogens, the socioeconomic cost of this infection is high, claiming the lives of over 200 000 patients every year.
Further details: Animal factors could help to understand how to prevent typhoid in humans