Widal test is one of the most commonly and frequently used method in clinical laboratories that may be used to make a presumptive diagnoses of enteric fever, commonly known as typhoid fever. widal test is not longer reliable in most developed countries like the United states due to low prevalence of typhoid, access to safe drinking water and good laboratory practice. But this method is still in use in many developing countries where enteric fever is endemic . typhoid fever or enteric causes a major public health challenge that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in many developing countries.
enteric fever is life threatening conditions caused by infection with the bacterium salmonella typhi and S .paratyphi. enteric fever is usually transmitted through food and drinks contaminated with fecal materials. Enteric fever is associated with symptoms that may include high fever, fatigue, abdominal cramp, headache and rose spot.early diagnosis and treatment of enteric fever are important to avoid serious complications that include intestinal bleeding also known as perforation.
In developed countries like US and china, testing for enteric fever usually involves series of laboratory procedures like blood culture to detect the bacteria during the first period or week of fever. other test like stool, urine or bone marrow culture may also be performed.
Salmonella enterica subsp. serotype typhi is the causative agent of typhoid fever. currently, different types of diagnostic techniques are used in the endemic areas, but isolating the actual ethological agent from stool, urine and blood is more reliable means of confirming an infection.
In developing countries like Nigeria, widal slide agglutination test is the common serological test to diagnose typhoid fever. the world health organisation (WHO) has stated that "widal tests should not be use as a diagnostic tool for typhoid". It suggest that a blood culture before initial antimicrobial therapy remains the best diagnostic method of choice, although isolation of salmonella from the bone marrow is the world standard method for confirming a typhoid fever.
Still, millions of Nigerians are being misdiagnosed with typhoid due to the rapid use of widal test as a diagnostic tool. the danger of incorrect diagnosis of typhoid fever is that the symptoms of typhoid or enteric fever are difficult to distinguish from other hemorrhagic fever like malaria and yellow fever.
Widal test had a low sensitivity and negative predictive value; it also had very low specificity and positive predictive value. It might be due to cross-reacting antibodies from other enterobacteria. Low specificity means patients might be suffering from other causes of diseases and low PPV value means majority of those who tested have disease are not truly diseased by the suspected cause that is one of the reason why widal is not recommended in many developed countries.


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I agree with you

But then again
Widal test is more cheaper as compared to the other test you earlier mentioned
Even though it is quick but it's not reliable.