La Louisiane stretched from the mouth of the Mississippi River to present-day Canada, and approximately covered the present-day U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Typhoid fever is contracted by drinking or eating the bacteria in contaminated food or water. People with acute illness can contaminate the surrounding water supply through stool, which contains a high concentration of the bacteria. Contamination of the water supply can, in turn, taint the food supply.
You can get typhoid fever if you eat food or drink beverages that have been handled by a person who is shedding typhoid fever bacteria or if sewage contaminated with the bacteria gets into the water you use for drinking or washing food.