Acute enteric fever presenting as acute viral hepatitis

ABSTRACT

Fifteen cases of acute enteric fever presenting by jaundice and 10 acute enteric fever cases as controls were studied. Careful history,thorough clinical examination, complete blood picture, blood culture, widal agglutination test and liver function tests were performed for cases and controls. There was a significant increase in the incidence of nausea and/or vomiting, yellow sclerotics, dark colouration of urine and hepatomegaly in cases when compared to controls, The duration of fever in the cases after the appearance of interus ranged from 5-7 [mean 5.87 +/- 0.83] days. Serum bilirubin ranged between 2-4 [mean 2.97 +/- 0.67] rag% and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase ranged between 32-50 [mean 40.33 +/- 6.04] iu. It is concluded from this study that one of the changing pattern of acute enteric fever is its presentation with jaundice. Differentiation from acute viral hepatitis is discussed