Counts and cards – a novel way to detect typhoid infections in the ED

Objective The diagnosis of typhoid fever is made by growth of the causative microorganism from culture of bone marrow aspirate or blood which is time dependent. In a busy ED like ours, typhoid fever is a frequent presentation. There is need for a rapid and reliable test made available at the bed side, to detect typhoid infections. The sensitivity and specificity of Enterocheck WB, a card test that detects IgM antibodies to salmonella typhi and low eosinophil counts were compared individually and together, with the gold standard of blood culture using BacT/Alert.