ABSTRACT
Salmonella paratyphi A is a pathogenic bacterium that causes paratyphoid fever. The current laboratory diagnostic techniques are unsatisfactory. To improve diagnosis, a plasmid (pSK-8E) encoding phase 1 flagellin gene nucleotide position 452-890 from S. paratyphi A has been constructed. The recombinant protein expressed from the plasmid has been used to develop an indirect ELISA for IgM antibody detection. Sera from patients with hemoculture positive for S. paratyphi A, S. typhi, other gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, and dengue hemorrhagic fever as well as from healthy control subjects were tested. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the test were 56.9%, 98.8%, 90.6% and 92.1%, respectively. Since the sensitivity was low, the explanation for this result was investigated. It was found that the sensitivity of the test could be increased to 83.3% if the sera were obtained 9-12 days after onset of fever. The sera obtained earlier or later gave only 33.3% and 66.6% sensitivity, respectively. This result suggests that the IgM antibody detection assay which we have developed is a valuable tool for diagnosis of S. paratyphi A infection when the serum samples are taken at the appropriate time.