An investigation into the correlations among the Widal titers and some diseases (other than typhoid) that are responsible for the false positive results of Widal test

Abstract

Typhoid fever is one of the most common infectious diseases. The Widal test is one of the extensively used and only available sero-diagnostic test of typhoid fever in developing countries. But the main fault of Widal test is it often produces false positive results. For this reason it is no more used in the developed countries. The objectives of this study were to find out the correlation of diarrhea, dengue and cold fever with the Widal titers; to identify the correlation between typhoid fever and diarrhea as well as between typhoid fever and cold fever and to find out the correlation between Widal titers and cold fever treatments. Blood samples of this study were collected from 100 apparently healthy medical students for a period of about seven months. The sera were separated and the presence of the Salmonella antibodies was analyzed by Widal test. Among the 100 samples, 59 were found positive for TO and 27 were found positive for TH. No correlation was found between Widal titers and diarrhea, dengue and cold fever. There was not any correlation between typhoid and diarrhea as well as typhoid fever and cold fever. Treatments of cold fever had no effect on the Widal titers of the students.