Usefulness of the Widal Test in Childhood Typhoid Fever

Résumé du livre

Although bacterial isolation is the gold standard in diagnosis of typhoid fever, the Widal test continues to be used widely as an adjunct investigation. Whilst differing views are held on "significant" titres, sensitivity and specificity should determine the cut off points. We present data on 2382 children investigated for fever in a hospital on the East Coast of Malaysian between 1984 and 1987 when Widal and blood culture were a routine part of every fever screen. In 145 cases S. typhi was isolated from blood, stool or urine (TYP-CP); in 166 cases a final diagnosis of enteric fever was made in the absence of positive culture (TYP-CN); in seven cases S. paratyphi was isolated (PARA-TYP); in 2064 cased the final diagnosis was non-typhoidal (NON-TYP).