Typhoid Fever

The fever rises and rises and refuses to fall. The abdomen burns as if someone has lit a fire in your intestines and forgotten to extinguish it. The head swims. Red spots trace themselves across the skin. Consciousness clouds over, thoughts grow sluggish, the world recedes. Medically, typhoid fever is a systemic infection with Salmonella typhi — a bacterium that spreads from the intestine throughout the entire body and triggers an illness once called "nerve fever" because it affects not only the abdomen but the head as well.