KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Health Department will be monitoring carefully the sudden increase of typhoid cases in Tawau.
Its health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi said as of yesterday there were eight cases in Tawau and one in Kinabatangan.
Tawau has shown an increase in typhoid cases as there was none reported last year in the same period.
All cases involved locals and no death has been reported.
Typhoid is caused by Salmonella typhii bacteria, which spreads through contaminated food and drinking water.
Those infected might suffer from prolong fever, headache, rashes, constipation for adults, as well as diarrhoea for children.
“All cases as per our current investigation are not related. They are sporadic cases.
“We are taking environment samples to get evidence of epidemiology link to all cases,” she said in a statement.
Dr Christina added the department has also checked the health status people that were close with patients and disinfected their houses.
Health awareness programme on the disease are also being conducted among the public.
In the past 10 years, Sabah recorded between 37 and 96 cases annually.