Effect of socio-economic status, age and sex on antibody titre profile to Salmonella typhi/paratyphi in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Typhoid fever remains a great socio-medical problem in many poor and underdeveloped countries, with an estimated 16 million cases and 600,000 deaths occurring each year. Although it has a world wide distribution, typhoid fever is endemic where sanitary controls are inadequate. The distribution of the infection in relation to age and sex has shown that typhoid fever is more prevalent in males than in females with out satisfactory explanation. Also, those in their second and third decades are more susceptible. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of socio-economic status, age and sex on antibody titre profile to Salmonella typhi and praratyphi in Ile-Ife, using both healthy individuals with immunological scar to Salmonella typhi/paratyphi and enteric fever patients.

Method: Healthy volunteers (310) were recruited into the study and clinically diagnosed/culture proven cases (48) were used as control. Widal text was performed on each serum. Slide agglutination was first done, then positive samples were further subjected to tube agglutination for quantitative titration.

Results: The relationship between age and antibody titres in both healthy subjects and enteric fever patients is not statistically significant, (P values > 0.05). From the study also, sex and social status do not influence antibody titres to salmonella typhi/paratyphi (P value > 0.05).

Conclusion: The study has shown that age, sex and social class do not statistically influence antibody titre profile to S. typhi/paratyphi in Ile-Ife, south western Nigeria.