Evaluation of Diagnostic Methods for Typhoid Fever Disease in Ondo State, Nigeria

Aim: Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella enteric serovar Typhi and S. enteric serovar Paratyphi A. B. C. Accurate diagnosis of this illness will greatly reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with it. This study therefore evaluated the available diagnostic methods for typhoid fever among 44 clinical laboratories in Ondo State of Nigeria.
Methods: A simple but well-structured questionnaire filled by the most senior scientist, was administered on forty-four (44) out of the forty seven clinical laboratories registered by government and the monitoring agency to assess the various methods used by individual laboratory.
Results: All respondent laboratories used serological method (Widal’s Agglutination Test) while none used neither bone marrow culture nor molecular technique (PCR). Widal tests were reported by 93.2% of the laboratories without titration. Blood and stool cultures were sparingly and inconsistently used by about 48% of the laboratories, thereby being unable to generate information about species prevalence and susceptibility pattern of the pathogens.
Conclusion: The contribution of the clinical laboratories to the seeming treatment failure of typhoid fever became obvious from this study since no proper treatment or control measures can be effective without proper diagnosis. It is therefore suggested that our clinical laboratories be properly equipped for accurate diagnosis of typhoid fever.