Advances in Typhoid Diagnosis

An Ideal Diagnostic Test for Typhoid should be rapid, specific as well as sensitive

Stiff competition in the food and beverage industry has resulted in a lot of food providers compromising on hygiene to keep the cost down. In Indonesia, the expected annual growth in the food industry in 2018 is 13.8%. As result of these two factors, there is prevalence in diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and bacteria diarrhea. Typhoid is also an illness that is greatly affected by unsanitary food and environment. Severe cases may lead to serious complications or even death. Since typhoid may mimic the symptoms of other fevers including dengue, malaria, hepatitis and scrub typhus, in typhoid endemic regions, results obtained from the laboratory are important in confirming the clinical diagnosis of typhoid.

According the WHO, Indonesia is rated as one of the top five countries greatly affected by this disease. So, why typhoid? Typhoid fever is a systemic infection caused by Salmonella Typhi, usually through ingestion of contaminated food or water. Every year 2 million people in Indonesia are affected by this disease. This is due to the unsanitary food and environment that Indonesians surround themselves with.

The incubation period of typhoid fever can last for 10-14 days and may result in complications and material loss due to the long recovery time. So, an early detection of typhoid infection is important. There are several tests to diagnose typhoid fever such as ICT (immunocommatography), ELISA, Widal, IMBI (inhibition magnetic binding immune) and Tubex TF.

Current diagnosis for typhoid is still via the method of culture and antibody detection by means of the Widal test. The Widal test has been used to diagnose typhoid fever for decades although the downside about Widal is that it is a test that is not specified for diagnosing typhoid fever. The existing conventional tests lack speed, sensitivity and specificity.

An ideal diagnostic test for typhoid and typhoid carriers should be rapid, specific as well as sensitive. The development of a rapid and specific test combined with sensitive diagnosis would provide for prompt, effective management and control of typhoid fever. To overcome the limitations of the existing tests, new specific antigens and new diagnostic techniques have been employed.

TUBEX® TF has a specific antigen that can detect bacteria salmonella typhi, the bacteria responsible for causing typhoid fever. TUBEX™ system is ideally suited for use in the diagnosis of infections as it allows IgM antibodies to be detected easily and rapidly from whole sera. TUBEX® TF is an in vitro diagnostic test, based on early detection of Salmonella typhi IgM anti-O9 antibodies in serum. TUBEX® TF can be pre-formed in any laboratory environment and the result is ready within 10 minutes.

To find out more about TUBEX® TF, please click here 


References :

https://www.indonesia-investments.com/news/todays-headlines/growth-indonesia-s-food-beverage-industry-in-2015-revised-down/item5386
https://www.kompasiana.com/meldyelfa/56b45555b893738517693195/membaca-tes-tifoid-tipus-yang-tepat-cegah-over-under-diagnosa-bagian-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3438001/
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/06-039818/en/

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