Original Research Article
Year: 2016 | Month: August | Volume: 3 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 32-35
Prevalence of Widal Positivity in a Tertiary Care Hospital
Bala Murali Krishna Perala1, Rama Lakshmi Koripella2, Sulakshana Sony Cheemala3
1Professor and HOD, 2Assistant Professor, 3Post Graduate,
Department of Microbiology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Corresponding Author: Sulakshana Sony Cheemala
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Enteric fever which includes typhoid and paratyphoid fever is a systemic febrile illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar typhi and Salmonella enterica serovar paratyphi A, B or C respectively. The definitive diagnosis of typhoid fever requires the isolation of Salmonella typhi but in developing countries, facilities for isolation and culture are often not available and diagnosis relies upon the clinical features of the disease and detection of agglutinating antibodies to Salmonella typhi by the Widal test.
Widal test has been widely used for the diagnosis of typhoid fever, simply owing to the fact that no other sero-diagnostic test of sufficient sensitivity and specificity along with cost effectiveness has been developed till date, especially in typhoid endemic regions.
The present study was conducted with the aim to determine the prevalence of seropositivity of Salmonella typhi infections in a tertiary care hospital in South India.
Materials and Methods: A total of 270 blood samples received in the Microbiology department, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam from January to May 2016 were tested by conventional rapid slide agglutination test. Positive and negative controls were included in each batch of the test. Diagnostic titres of 1:80 and above were taken as positive.
Results: Out of 270 samples 84 (31.1%) were positive. Out of the total samples 124 (46%) samples were from males and 146 (54%) females. Most of the samples 128(47.7%) were from 1-20 years age group followed by 58 (21.48%) from 21-30 years. Maximum positive cases 43(15.8%) were from females and 41(15.2%) from males.
Conclusions: The disease remains an important public health problem in developing countries. Proper sanitation, public health education and vaccination are the long term preventive measures to decrease or control the disease. Updated data on the incidence or prevalence of typhoid fever is essential before introducing the vaccines into regular programmes.
Key words:Widal test, Salmonella typhi, Slide agglutination, Antibody titre, Enteric fever.