A Study of Typhoid Fever in Bheri Zonal Hospital and Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital, Banke, Nepal

Abstract

Typhoid fever remains an important public health issue in many developing countries and predominates in areas with poor sanitation, which aids its transmission and persistencein the human population. The prevalence of typhoid fever in different months of a year (2009/2010) and the distribution of cases of typhoid fever with respect to their age and gender among patients visiting Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital (NGMCTH) and Bheri Zonal Hospital (BZH), the two major health delivering institutions of Mid-western and Far-western regions of Nepal. During this period, 4657 and 5496 blood samples were collected in NGMCTH and BZH respectively. Of the 4657 tested in NGMCTH, agglutinins to Salmonella typhi was observed in 1092 samples (overall prevalence rate being 23.45%), that were most prevalent in months corresponding to wet season (June/ July-31%, July/August-29.65%).Similar trend was observed for BZH where of 5496 samples tested, Salmonella typhi was positive in 1814 samples with overall prevalence rate being 31.77%, cases being most prevalent in months corresponding to wet season (June/July–45.91%, July/August – 47.41%). In both hospitals, there was male predominance among cases (Male to Female Sex-ratio: 224:100 for NGMCTH and 247:100 for BZH). This male predominance was maintained in almost all age-groups. There was high proportion of cases of less than 30 years of age in both NGMCTH and BZH (77.84% and 73.98% respectively) indicating that most of the cases of typhoid fever are of younger age-group.On the average, typhoid cases aged 24.58 years ± 13.00 years for NGMCTH, while for BZH it was 25.81 years ± 13.41 years. Mean age of females was found to exceed to that of males in both NGMCTH (26.84 years ± 12.31 years against 23.58 years ± 13.16 years) and BZH (27.61 years ± 13.64years against 25.08 years ± 13.25 years).

Key words: Salmonella typhi, widal test, incidence, Nepal.