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Volume 4 Issue 6 (November - December, 2016)

Original Articles

PREVALENCE OF TYPHOID FEVER AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN- A CLINICAL STUDY
Manju Kumari, Sinjini Agarwal

Background: Pregnancy is the physiological state. In pregnant women, the incidence of typhoid fever is common. This is caused by Salmonella typhi. This article reports the incidence of tyhoid fever among pregnant women visiting the department of gynaecology and obstetrics. Materials & Methods: This study included 250 pregnant women visited the department. A performa was made and all relevant information regarding name, age were entered. The Widal agglutination test was done in all pregnant women. The Widal agglutination technique was carried out using plasmatic reagent containing S. Typhi O and H antigens, and S. Paratyphi A, B, and C antigens. A titer of > 1/160 was considered positive for typhoid/paratyphoid fever. Stool samples were taken from all women and inoculated into Salmonella-Shigella Agar (SSA) by streaking method after which the plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. Pure isolates obtained were identified and characterized based on colonial morphology, cultural characteristics, Gram stain reaction, and biochemical tests. Results: A total of 250 pregnant women were examined during this study. A prevalence rate of 62% was found positive for typhoid fever. The distribution of patients was done according to age groups. Age group 20-30 years showed maximum (108) typhoid positive women, 30-40 (23), <19 women and >40 years showed 12 women. The difference among age groups was significant (P-0.04). Housewife (75) constituted maximum number followed by labourer (62), working (10), others (7) and business (1). The difference was significant (P-0.01).Maximum number of patients was from rural area as compared to urban area and the difference was highly significant (P-0.01). Conclusion: Author concluded that pregnant women are prone to get infected with bacteria salmonella typhi. Typhoid fever is quite common as compared to other infection. Hence proper usage of water and food should be done to avoid getting infection.
Key Words: Pregnancy, Salmonella typhi, typhoid

Corresponding Author: Dr. Manju Kumari, Professor in Obstetric & Gynaecology, Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, Vikarabad, Ranga Reddy - 501 101, Telangana, India

This article may be cited as: Kumari M, Agarwal S. Prevalence of typhoid fever among pregnant women: A clinical study. J Adv Med Dent Scie Res 2016;4(6):234-237.

 
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