Clinico-epidemiological profile of enteric fever at a peripheral health centre in Kashmir valley

ABSTRACT

Enteric fever commonly known as typhoid fever remains endemic in many developing countries with an estimate of more than 26.9 million cases recorded annually with 1% associated deaths. We conducted a study to evaluate clinico-epidemiological profile of enteric fever in a peripheral hospital of Kashmir North India. This was a hospital based cross sectional study conducted over a period of one year including a total of 100 patients between 1-12 years of age. All children who have documented fever of more than one week duration with widal titres of >160 were included in the study. Among 100 patients included in the study 94% had fever of >1 week of duration, 68% and 50% had anorexia and vomiting respectively. Diarrhea was present in 28% of the study population with constipation in 10%. 28% had hepatomegaly on examination while as 12% had spleenomegaly. Headache was present in 17% of population. Our study concluded that enteric fever continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in developing nations especially in the rural population. Poor hygiene, lack of proper community education, limited healthy care facilities and negligible typhoid vaccination are the main concerns which need to be addressed on priority to decrease the disease burden.