The diagnostic value of the widal test in the inoculated

Abstract

1. Evidence is given that in recently inoculated persons the Widal reaction, even when serial quantitative tests are done, has no practical value in the diagnosis of enteric fever. Conscription enlarges permanently the inoculated proportion of the whole population.2. The diagnostic value of any particular titre depends not only on the relative frequencies with which this titre occurs in normal and infected individuals but also on the incidence of enteric fever in the population and on the fashionableness of the Widal test as a diagnostic aid.3. It is emphasized that blood culture is a more reliable aid to diagnosis than the Widal test.

Questions and Comments

“…Although a rise in serum titre was not found in every case, the results indicated that chloramphenicol does not interfere markedly with agglutinin production. Wilson (1945) and Mole (1948) investigated the agglutinin titre in the serum of inoculated persons with enteric fever who had not been treated with chloramphenicol. Their results were very variable; steadily rising titres were not the rule.…”