1. Assessment and comparative analysis of a rapid diagnostic test (Tubex®) for the diagnosis of typhoid fever among hospitalized children in rural Tanzania.
- Author
-
Ley B, Thriemer K, Ame SM, Mtove GM, von Seidlein L, Amos B, Hendriksen IC, Mwambuli A, Shoo A, Kim DR, Ochiai LR, Favorov M, Clemens JD, Wilfing H, Deen JL, and Ali SM
- Subjects
- Antibodies, Bacterial blood, Antibodies, Bacterial immunology, Child, Child, Hospitalized statistics & numerical data, Child, Preschool, Diagnostic Tests, Routine instrumentation, Humans, Male, Rural Population statistics & numerical data, Salmonella typhi immunology, Salmonella typhi isolation & purification, Tanzania, Typhoid Fever blood, Typhoid Fever immunology, Typhoid Fever microbiology, Diagnostic Tests, Routine methods, Typhoid Fever diagnosis
- Abstract
Background: Typhoid fever remains a significant health problem in many developing countries. A rapid test with a performance comparable to that of blood culture would be highly useful. A rapid diagnostic test for typhoid fever, Tubex®, is commercially available that uses particle separation to detect immunoglobulin M directed towards Salmonella Typhi O9 lipopolysaccharide in sera., Methods: We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the Tubex test among Tanzanian children hospitalized with febrile illness using blood culture as gold standard. Evaluation was done considering blood culture confirmed S. Typhi with non-typhi salmonella (NTS) and non - salmonella isolates as controls as well as with non-salmonella isolates only., Results: Of 139 samples tested with Tubex, 33 were positive for S. Typhi in blood culture, 49 were culture-confirmed NTS infections, and 57 were other non-salmonella infections. Thirteen hemolyzed samples were excluded. Using all non - S. Typhi isolates as controls, we showed a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 89%. When the analysis was repeated excluding NTS from the pool of controls we showed a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 97%. There was no significant difference in the test performance using the two different control groups (p > 0.05)., Conclusion: This first evaluation of the Tubex test in an African setting showed a similar performance to those seen in some Asian settings. Comparison with the earlier results of a Widal test using the same samples showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) for any of the performance indicators, irrespective of the applied control group.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF