Background: Bacteria-parasite association has been documented a factor to continued and prolonged of the bacterial infection such as typhoid and paratyphoid fever in schistosomiasis patients.
Objectives: to determine the presence of typhoid and paratyphoid Salmonella among schistosomiasis patients and to evaluate the efficacy of Widal test.
Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was
... [Show full abstract] conducted between November 2003 and May 2004 in Managil region, Gezira State, Sudan. A total of 203 male participates were enrolled in the study. Urine, stool and blood samples were collected from each subject and processed for the investigation of schistosomiasis and Salmonella infection as per standard methods. Widal test was performed to estimate diagnostic cut-off value of enteric fever.
Results: Of the 203 studied subjects, 42 (20.7%) were diagnosed with Schistosoma haematobium, whereas eight (3.9%) were due to Schistosoma mansoni infection. Of these, Salmonella species were detected in 30 (60%) cases, of which Salmonella typhi represented at 63.3%, followed by Salmonella paratyphi A and B (16.7%, each) and Salmonella paratyphi C (3.3%). Based on the culture results (n=30) as a diagnostic method for enteric fever, Widal test was positive in 12 cases, with a sensitivity of 40% and specificity of 75%. Of the Widal positive cases, titers of 1:160, 1:320, 1:640 were detected in 58.3%, 33.3% and 8.3% of samples, respectively.
Conclusions: In schistosomiasis endemic regions, enteric fever was associated with schistosomiasis, which requires investigating of both infections concomitantly. Regardless the low sensitivity of Widal test, titre of ≥1/160 is a diagnostic value for enteric fever in this study group.