Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

The status of widal test in the clinical diagnosis of typhoid fever in Imo State, Nigeria

8^thGlobal Summit on Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

February 22-23, 2018 | Paris, France

Treasure Njideka Njoku-Obi

Imo State University, Nigeria

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Microbiol

Abstract:

This work studied the relevance of Widal test in the diagnosis of typhoid fever in Imo state, Nigeria. Both the tube and slide agglutination Widal tests were used to investigate the incidence of typhoid fever in 2,700 test individuals comprising 2,300 typhoid fever patients and 400 apparently healthy individuals in Owerri and Orlu zones of Imo state. The test results were compared with those of standard blood culture tests. Test individuals were categorized according to their occupations as civil servants (900), farmers (450), students (400), business men/women (700) and children (250). Results showed that the accuracy of the Widal tube and slide agglutination tests as used in the study in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 54%, 77%, 90% and 30%, respectively. Analysis of the results obtained using the two diagnostic tools in the two zones showed that there was a significant difference at p<0.05. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that Widal test remains relevant as a diagnosis tool for typhoid fever in Imo State as it is more convenient, cheaper and faster.

Biography :

Treasure Njideka Njoku-Obi has completed her PhD from Imo State University. She is a Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Imo State University, Nigeria. She is also global out-reach Member of American Society for Microbiology, Nigerian Society of Microbiology and Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals.