Commenter 1: In the UK, there is no laboratory that uses the Widal agglutination test for diagnosis of typhoid fever.
My laboratory isolate Sal. typhi and other associated species from stools on a regular basis.
These are then sent for confirmation by molecular typing.
It is high time we move on from this outdated and very unreliable means of testing for typhoid fever in Nigeria.

Commenter 2: When I worked in the Public Health Laboratory in Yaba in1967,we never did any Widal test but grew salmonella& shigella spp from stool samples. Isolates were then sent to the Colindale Labs in North London for typing. That’s how some of those spp bearing local names came to be. It is laziness& sheer chicanery on the part that everybody in Nigeria is now diagnosed with MP and Salmonella at the same time and people laughing their way to the bank!There was a country ,you know.

Dr. AKenami Commentary: It’s disturbing that in Nigeria almost everybody tests positive for malaria parasite and typhoid. Well, what the above discussion is highlighting is that the widal method used in Nigeria for typhoid fever is outdated because it is inaccurate. So do not fret when you test positive for typhoid. It may not be accurate.

Thank you