Prevalence of Salmonella typhi Infection among Food Handlers in Imo State University Owerri Nigeria and its Environs

Typhoid fever caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is an endemic acute febrile illness which causes a high disease mortality and morbidity rate in developing countries. The disease can be transmitted through contaminated food and water and has gained an endemic status as the bacterium can be carried and shed by some individuals who have recovered from the disease. This study investigates the carriership of the bacteria by food handlers who may shed the bacteria into street vended foods they serve, thus spreading the disease and correlating this data to sex, age and source of drinking water. 420 blood and stool samples were collected from volunteers working in the food retail sector (cafeterias) around Imo State University Owerri and its environs using stratified random sampling methods. Widal test (rapid slide agglutination) was utilized as a presumptive screening test with titer values of 1:80 and above considered as positive. Stool culture served as confirmatory assay and resultant bacterial colonies were subjected to a series of biochemical tests to confirm the presence of S. typhi. The overall prevalence rate recorded in this study is 66.2%, with females having a prevalence rate of 67.4% while males had a prevalence of 64.2%. Older adults in the age group of 41-55 had the highest prevalence of 82.9% followed by children within the ages of 8 to 18 (80%). With respect to the source of drinking water, the highest prevalence of Salmonella carriership was recorded for individuals consuming untreated water from boreholes and sachet water at 82.4% and 83.2% respectively while individuals that drank treated water recorded a percentage prevalence of Salmonella carriership of 29.8%. The results obtained from this study highlights the high carriership rate of Salmonella amongst food handlers and the possibility of these individuals introducing the bacteria into foods, posing a public health risk. It also identifies the consumption of untreated water as the possible source of infection of these individuals, thus indicating the need for public health interventions in the provision of portable water to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of typhoid fever.