Middlesbrough mum opens up about her baby testing positive for potentially-deadly typhoid fever

A mum from Middlesbrough has opened up about how her baby who was thought to have a standard viral infection, tested positive for potentially-deadly typhoid fever.

Tanya Johnson, 35, from Marton said she knew something was seriously wrong with her 12-month-old daughter when her condition kept getting worse.

On 25 July, Raine began to get a white coating on her tongue, was off her food and irritable, but tests did not uncover anything.

Into the second week the symptoms got worse with loose stools, a persistent cough,

a high temperature, wasn't eating or drinking and couldn't sit up and had to be placed on a drip and have a feeding tube put in.

Tanya said: "Her stools were terrible, she was just going all the time. I couldn't understand where it was all coming from because she wasn't eating or drinking.

"It was the most horrific experience, she was so poorly. It was so awful seeing my baby like that."The mum-of-four said staff at James Cook Hospital were struggling to come up with a diagnosis, at first believing it to be a viral infection. They were stunned when Raine was diagnosed for potentially-deadly typhoid fever.

"They couldn't believe it because it is so rare. Some of the staff were saying they had never seen a case in the whole of their careers" she said.

Tanya said everyone was in shock when the poorly youngster was found to have typhoid fever, which is caused when someone becomes infected with the salmonella typhi bacteria.

She believes Raine was just days away from reaching stage four of the disease which can lead to brain, heart and bowel complications, even death.

Those who contract the infection usually have travelled to countries with poor sanitation.

Parents Tanya and Mick said they are at a loss of how their daughter caught the disease as the family had not been anywhere.

Raine is responding to antibiotics and it is hoped she will make a full recovery."Raine is coming on leaps after receiving the correct treatment. She is eating, drinking and smiling again. She still has another week of intravenous antibiotics to complete and further tests to make sure there is no internal damage.

"I just want other people to know about the disease" she said. Tanya said she wants to share Raine's story just in case a similar thing happens to somebody else.

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