Comparative Study of Widal test Against Stool Culture in Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever Suspected Cases in Kano, Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The "gold standard" for diagnosis of typhoid fever is the isolation of Salmonella typhi from appropriate samples including blood, stool and urine. The study was aimed to compare Widal test against stool culture for diagnosis of typhoid fever cases in Kano, Northern Nigeria. A completely randomized design is used. A total of 125 subjects (male, n= 57 and female, n=68) presenting febrile conditions in 4 different health care centers within Kumbotso Local Government Kano State were used for the study. About 5ml of blood was obtained from each study participant for Widal test and freshly passed faeces were collected for stool culture. The result showed that 22 (17.6%) tested positive for Salmonella typhi by Widal test, whereas 17 (13.6%) tested positive by stool culture. From the result, patients within the age category 21-40 years has the highest incidence 9 (7.2%) and 7 (5.6%) for Widal test and stool culture respectively while male has the highest prevalence with 12 and 10 individuals (9.6% and 8%) while 10 and 7 individual positive samples were female accounted for 8% and 5.6% for widal test and stool microcopy respectively. In relation to stool culture, Widal test has high sensitivity (78.3%), specificity (93.6%), positive predictive value (68.2%) and negative predictive value (98.1%). There is no significant difference on the prevalence of the infection on the basis of gender, age category and diagnostic methods at p<0.05. It is concluded that Widal test can be used as a diagnostic method for detection of Salmonella typhi.