Clinical and laboratory analysis of a large imported typhoid fever outbreak in The Netherlands

Typhoid fever is a rarely encountered disease in the Western world. In our study, patients with imported typhoid fever were characterized by a febrile illness with a relative bradycardia, headache and abdominal pain. Only a few patients presented with diarrhoea. An elevated CRP and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) were the most common laboratory abnormalities. Complications like focal abscesses occurred quite frequently.