Reevaluation of baseline Widal titres in children: a cross-sectional survey of 250 children (1-15 years) in and around Davangere, Karnataka, India

Authors

  • Ramesh H. Department of Pediatrics, J J M Medical College, Davanagere, Karnataka, India
  • Nagesh B. P. Department of Pediatrics, J J M Medical College, Davanagere, Karnataka, India
  • Sandeep Karanam Department of Pediatrics, J J M Medical College, Davanagere, Karnataka, India
  • Sankeerth Yellinedi Department of Pediatrics, J J M Medical College, Davanagere, Karnataka, India
  • Suresh Babu P. S. Department of Pediatrics, J J M Medical College, Davanagere, Karnataka, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20161041

Keywords:

Widal titres, Healthy children, S. typhi, S. paratyphi A

Abstract

Background: Typhoid fever is a serious health problem in developing countries including India. Isolation of S. typhi by culture is the gold standard for diagnosis, but the positive cases are very less, time consuming and expensive, so the best alternative is Widal test. Widal test can be used as a diagnostic tool if we know the baseline titres in a particular community. Objective: To re-evaluate the baseline Widal titres in apparently healthy children in and around Davangere, and to find the significance of 1:160 titres in Widal test.

Methods: Cross sectional study was done on 250 children. Tube agglutination test was done on 112 healthy and 138 children with minor nontyphoidal illness. Titres were studied in relation to age, sex, nutritional status and healthy children to minor nontyphoidal illness.

Results: Out of 112 healthy children, 52.7% had titres less than 1: 20, 25% had 1:20, 18.8% had 1:40 and 3.6% had a titre level of 1:80 for ‘O’ antigen of S. typhi. 63% children had a titre of less than 1: 20, 21.4% had 1:20, 8% for 1:40 and 7.1% had a titre of 1:80 for ‘H’ antigen of S. typhi. For ‘H’ antigen of S. paratyphi A the titres for less than 1:20 were 83%, 8% cases had a titre of 1:20 and 4.5% cases had titre levels of 1:40 and 1:80. No children had a titre value of ≥1:160 for both S. typhi and paratyphi A in the healthy children group.

Conclusions: The baseline titres of healthy children in all the age groups and both sex is ≤ 1:80 for ‘O’ and ‘H’ antigen of S. typhi and ‘H’ antigen of S. paratyphi A.

References

Punia JN, Joshi RM, Gupta V, Rora RK. Detrmination of baseline widal titres from Chandigarh. Ind J Med Microbiol. 2003;21:144.

Crump JA, Luby SP, Mintz ED: The global burden of typhoid fever. Bull World Health Organ. 2004;82(5):346-53.

Zaki, Karande. Multidrug-resistant typhoid fever: J Infect Dev Ctries. 2011;5(5):324-37.

Patil AM, Kulkarni ML, Kulkarni AM. Baseline widal titres in healthy children. Ind J Pediatr. 2007;74(12):1081-3.

Kulkarni ML, Rego SJ. Value of single Widal test in diagnosis of Tyhpoid fever. Ind J Pediatr. 1994;31(11):1373-7.

Ibadin MO, Ogbimi MO. Antityphoid agglutinins in school aged African Children. East Afr Med J. 2002;79(2):92-5.

Pokhrel BM, Karmacharya R, Mishra SK, Koiria J. Distribution of antibody titre against salmonella enteric among healthy individuals in Nepal. Ann Clin Microb. 2009;8:1-8.

Aftab R, Khurshid R. Widal agglutination titre: A Rapid serological diagnosis of typhoid fever in developing countries. Pak J Physiol. 2009;5(1):65-7.

Noorbakhsh S, Rimaz S, Rahbarimanesh AA, Mamishi S. Interpretation of the widal test in infected children. Iranian J Publ Health. 2003;32:35-7.

Salmani MP, Parandekar PK, Peerapur BV, Kulkarni KR. J Commun Dis. 2009;41(3):219-20.

Zailani SB, Oyelese AO, Aborderin AO. Determination of baseline antibody titre to S.typhi / paratyphi in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Afr J Med Sci. 2003;32(3):307-10.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-28

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles