Seroprevalence Rates of Typhoid Fever among Children in Endemic Areas, South Sulawesi, Indonesia Dwiyanti Ressy1,2, Hatta Mochammad2,*, Natzir Rosdiana3, Pratiwi Sutji3, Sabir Muhammad1,2, Yasir Yadi2,4, Rizki, Noviyanthi Amelia2 1Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tadulako University, Palu 2Molecular Biology and Immunology Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hasanuddin University, Makassar 3Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Hasanuddin University, Makassar 4Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia *Corresponding Author: Prof. Mochammad Hatta, MD, PhD., Molecular Biology and Immunology Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia, e-mail: hattaram@yahoo.co
Online published on 23 December, 2019. Abstract Typhoid fever is still a major health problem in endemic countries. However, the real magnitude of the incidence rate is unclear and difficult to determine. This study is to evaluate the validity of extrapolation of the seroprevalence in children as a proxy indicator for the level of endemicity. Two rural areas of South Sulawesi (Paitana subdistrict as the high-endemic area and Bantimurung subdistrict as low-endemic), Indonesia with approximately 1, 000 inhabitants each were selected for this study. Diagnosis of typhoid fever was based on the clinical signs and Widal test confirmed by blood culture. Sera were taken from subjects for determination of IgM by ELISA. The incidence rate of typhoid fever among community both in Paitana and Bantimurung subdistrict was 20.60/1, 000 and 8.5/1, 000 population, respectively; while the incidence rate of typhoid fever among children both in Paitana and Bantimurung subdistrict was 35.83/1, 000 and 9.30/1, 000 children, respectively. The seropositivity rates of community in Paitana were significant higher than in Bantimurung subdistrict (11.42% vs 4.67%) (p <0.05). Also, the seropositivity rates of children in Paitana were significantly higher than in Bantimurung subdistrict (45.60% vs. 11.63%) (p<0.05). The high-endemic area in Paitana had similar high-incidence and seroprevalence rates both in community and children. In contrast, Bantimurung subdistrict had much lower incidence and seroprevalence rates both in community and children. The correlation coefficient between incidence and seroprevalence rates was 0.98. The results revealed that seroprevalence rates among children may use as an indicator and extrapolation of typhoid fever endemicity. Top Keywords Typhoid fever, seroprevalence, community, children, Indonesia. Top |