EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Typhoid fever has been around for millennia and continues to cause many cases and deaths every year. However, the past 200 years have also seen dramatic changes in the way we can control infectious diseases like typhoid. Find out how typhoid spreads and read about the scientific breakthroughs leading to effective sanitation, vaccines, and antibiotics.

The bacterium causing typhoid spreads in contaminated water and food. Find out how improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) led to dramatic regional reductions of typhoid fever from the 1850s onwards.

Antibiotics have played a vital role in reducing deaths from typhoid infections. However, human antibiotic use is selecting for typhoid bacteria that are increasingly resistant to the antibiotics we use. Watch our animations and read our posters on the science and use of antibiotics in disease control and the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Vaccines can play an important role in preventing infectious diseases such as typhoid. But how are they made and how do they work? Explore our videos and virtual lab tours of the Oxford Jenner Institute to learn more.

Would you infect yourself to help science? In human challenge studies, healthy volunteers are deliberately exposed to bacteria and viruses to analyse the biological mechanics of an infection and to test new vaccines and treatments. Learn more about how challenge studies work, why people participate them, and current trials at the University of Oxford.”

In 2020, Oxford Vaccine Group played a leading role in the vaccine response against the COVID-19 virus. Watch our video explainers on the science behind the COVID-19 vaccines, read our comics and infographics on infection and immunity, and play our Immune System Memory Game.