Evaluation of a Qualitative Antibody Detection Method of Typhoid Fever

Abstract

Whole South East Asia including Pakistan is the hyper-endemic areas for typhoid fever. Clinical diagnosis is not definitive. Blood or bone marrow culture which is still considered as the gold standard in cases of typhoid fever. However bacterial culture facilities are often unavailable and time consuming, there is real need of rapid serological diagnostic test. The present study was conducted to evaluate the % age of IgG and IgM antibodies against the Salmonella typhi by Typhidot test. A total of 100 cases of typhoid fever were collected from 1^st January 2015 to 31^th December 2015 from Pathology Laboratory in Karachi, Pakistan, on which typhidot procedure was followed. The results of typhidot were IgG positive in 11(11%) cases, and IgM positive in 6(6%) cases and both (IgG and IgM) positive in 9(9%) cases. The results of typhidot were negative in 74(74%) cases. It is concluded that the typhidot test is relatively rapid serological test, simple, reliable, less expensive test which fulfills needs of clinicians especially in areas where laboratory services are limited.