The prevalence of typhoid fever in Bingham University

Abstract

Typhoid fever remains a major cause of enteric disease and a significant public health problem. The disease is said to be very prevalent in the developing countries, of which Nigeria is one. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of typhoid fever among Bingham University students. A total of 125 blood and stool samples were collected randomly from both male and female students of Bingham University. The blood samples were tested for salmonella antigen using Widal test while stool samples were cultured on Salmonella/Shigella agar for the isolation of the causative agent. From the Widal test 80 (69.6%) samples were positive for Salmonella typhi infection, while the stool culture yielded 94 (75.2%) samples that showed the presence of Salmonella typhi. The gender distribution showed that the prevalence was higher in female students (87.30%) than the male students (62.90%). The infection was highest in the age group of 21-25 years which had 86.36% prevalence. The lowest prevalence was observed in the age group 26-30 years with 46.15%. The prevalence of typhoid fever is generally high in the University. Therefore, proper sanitary measures should be observed by the students in the university. The results also proved the superiority and reliability of stool culture technique over the Widal test in the diagnosis of Salmonella typhi infection. This study will provide the school administration adequate knowledge on the infection and serve as a guide in proffering solution to halt further spread of the disease in the institution.

Occurrence of <i>Salmonella</i> Enteric Serovar Typhi Antibodies among Blood Donors in Ghana

“…The prevalence of typhoid among people with tertiary education reported in this study is consistent with a study in Zimbabwe which recorded a prevalence of 6.2% for participants with tertiary education [38]. Findings in this study, however, are in contrast with an earlier study conducted in Nigeria which reported a seroprevalence of 75.2% among tertiary students [39]. The difference may be as a result of differences in the levels of hygiene existing in the different study sites [37].…”

Seroconfirmed Typhoid Fever and Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices among Febrile Patients Attending at Injibara General Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Moreover, known HIV and inpatients were included in other studies, which might increase the seroprevalence. Similarly, the seroprevalence in the present study was lower than a study done in Nigeria among university students [13] reporting 69.6%. This variation might be due to the difference among study participants where students from Nigeria were living in a single campus, which might allow the occurrence of high TF prevalence in a specific study period because of a common infection source.…”

“…Though different laboratory test methods and clinical specimens are used, the prevalence of S. Typhi is variable among different countries in Africa [9] and among different geographical locations in Ethiopia [10]. Previous studies done showed a heterogeneous prevalence of S. Typhi in African countries ranging from 5%-69.6% [11][12][13][14][15].…”

A systemic review of literatures on human Salmonella enterica serovars in Nigeria (1999-2018)

“…However, a high proportion (46%) of Salmonella bacteraemia in children under 12 years of age was found. Statistical significance association of typhoidal salmonellosis with age had been documented and with children at the high risk of salmonellosis [21,24,25,33,54]. HIV infection, malaria parasitaemia coinfection with typhoid [17,21] sickle cell anaemia [28] and gender among others are certain predisposing factors reported to influence occurrence of Salmonellaassociated diseases in this study.…”