Diagnosis
Diagnosis is made by any blood, bone marrow or stool cultures and with the Widal test (demonstration of salmonella antibodies against antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar). In epidemics and less wealthy countries, after excluding malaria, dysentery or pneumonia, a therapeutic trial time with chloramphenicol is generally undertaken while awaiting the results of Widal test and cultures of the blood and stool.
The Widal test is time consuming and often, when a diagnosis is reached, it is too late to start an antibiotic regimen.
The term "enteric fever" is a collective term that refers to typhoid and paratyphoid.
Read more about this topic: Typhoid Fever