A Study of Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in the Souf Oasis (Eastern South of Algeria).

In this study, we followed the spatiotemporal and demographic development of typhoid fever disease in the oasis of Souf, by analyzing the details of 723 confirmed cases during the period extended from 1998 to 2015. The results of the study showed that, among the 18 towns of Souf, the most affected ones were Reguiba and El-Oued. Furthermore, nearly 60% of all recorded cases were during the period that extended from 2005 to 2008. From a demographic perspective, we found that the age of the most affected groups was from 6 to 18 years old, followed by 31 to 60 years old. Also, working men were more prone to this disease than women. In the majority of these cases, water was found to be the essential source of contamination. The effective fight against this disease should be done by the contribution of all private and public actors to improve the living and environmental framework of populations, through providing clean drinking water sources and effective sanitation services. Also it should be done by the development of health awareness in all society categories, particularly among children and adolescents at schools. Surely, if we adopt these solutions, we might help eliminating the causes, not only for typhoid fever, but also for all diseases that could spread in degraded environmental conditions, especially water-borne diseases.