Typhoid

Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by Salmonella serotype Typhi bacteria. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several days. This is commonly accompanied by weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headache, and mild vomiting. Some people develop a skin rash with rose colored spots. In severe cases, people may experience confusion. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Other people may carry the bacterium without being affected, but they are still able to spread the disease to others. Typhoid is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person. Risk factors include poor sanitation and poor hygiene.

Typhoid in Redan
Typhoid was reported in Redan in February 1887.

In February 1890 the health officer for Ballarat reported less typhoid cases than the previous year, but it did include several cases and deaths in Redan: "Dr Jordan, stated that he has not had so many typhoid fever cases reported to him as he had up to this date last year. Two cases that came under his notice as a private practitioner were of a mild character, and in nearly every case he has seen the disease was not so virulent as usual. Ballarat, he considers, is as free from this scourge as any part of the colony. A place of such an extent could not expect to go scot free. Two deaths have occurred at the Hospital this year from typhoid, but both patients contracted the disease out of Ballarat. There had been several cases in Sebastopol street, Redan, and in a house near the Miners' Racecourse three in one family died. In these neighborhoods a great many people keep pigs, and the family referred to kept one or more. The dirt and smell from the styes are very conducive to typhoid. Summing up the matter, Dr Jordan stated that there are not many cases about; that they are not of a virulent nature, and that in most cases the disease has been contracted in Melbourne."