Prevalence of Widal Positivity and Its Seasonal Trend in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Western Maharashtra

Introduction: Enteric fever is a systemic disease caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Infection occurs in all age groups, and it is transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces. Thus, this study is undertaken to determine the prevalence of widal positivity and its seasonal trend from 2015 to 2022 in a tertiary care hospital. Material & Methods: The present study is a retrospective study which was conducted in Department of Microbiology of a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai from January 2015 to December 2022. A total of 11,135 samples were analyzed during the study. Analysis was done and data was presented as numbers and percentages. Results: A total of 11,135 blood samples were analyzed during the study period, out of which 1245 samples were positive for widal test. Out of 1245 positive samples, adult and paediatric cases were 895 and 350 respectively. The overall prevalence was found to be 11.18 %; the male to female prevalence ratio was 1:1.22. Increased widal positivity was seen from June to September corresponding to the monsoon season. Conclusion: Enteric fever remains an important public health problem in developing countries. Though blood culture method has been used as gold standard method for diagnosis of enteric fever, it has certain limitations. Therefore, widal test, which is more rapid, simpler, and cheaper diagnostic method is very useful.