Occurrence of human infection with Salmonella Typhi in sub-Saharan Africa.

Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, results in over 1.2 million cases and 29 thousand deaths annually from sub-Saharan Africa. Combating this disease requires various intervention approaches, such as typhoid conjugate vaccines and improving water, sanitation, and hygiene. Enhancing the effectiveness of these strategies necessitates a deeper understanding of the variation of the typhoid fever across the target region. Although the magnitude and variation of typhoid fever at the country level have been studied globally, sub-national variation remains underexplored. To address this gap, we collected data from 265 published reports on typhoid fever occurrences in sub-Saharan Africa between January 2000 and December 2020. The dataset includes information on the year and geographical location of observation, diagnostic tests used, and the type of studies in which typhoid fever was reported. By analyzing this dataset, we can gain insights into the sub-national heterogeneity of typhoid fever's burden in the region. This knowledge will be instrumental in designing more effective intervention strategies to combat the disease. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was supported, in whole or in part, by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (Grant Number OPP1157270 / INV-009125) and the Severe Typhoid Fever in Africa Program (Grant Number OPP1127988). The funders were not involved in the study design, data analysis, data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of their affiliated organizations. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced are available online at https://github.com/kimfinale/typhoid_occurrence.