LabTalk with Isaac

Today I received a patient with a fever. The doctor requested for a Widal test. I did the test and It came “positive.” The patient was put put on antibiotics.
One problem: he had malaria three weeks earlier.
Here’s what almost nobody tells patients — the Widal test can turn positive from a past malaria infection, from old exposure to typhoid you never even got sick from, or from several other bacteria that look similar to it. It’s not testing for the bacteria itself. It’s testing for antibodies, and in places like ours, most adults are walking around with some antibody level in their blood just from living here.
So is the test useless? No. It’s cheap, it’s fast, and in a lot of our clinics it’s the only thing available. But “positive” doesn’t always mean what patients think it means.
Question for you: if you tested positive on a Widal test, would you ask your clinician for a confirmatory test — or take the result at face value? 👇

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Gibo Lantos, Adeniran Aliu Adewale, Kevin Kirui, SH Muhammad, Idah Mulenga, Criticalthinker K C Brown, Lawal Attahir, Allan Mwale, Opio Charles, Larry Steward

Let's settle this today!
Who should be responsible for withdrawing blood from patients?
💉 Nurses?
🧪 Laboratory Technicians/Scientists?
Tell us:
What happens at your facility?
What do your hospital policies say?
Which approach do you think is best for patient care?
👇 Drop your profession and country in the comments!

A patient presents with chronic diarrhoea. Stool microscopy shows no ova, cysts, or parasites. I then run a Giardia stool antigen test, and it came positive.
I repeated both tests. Same result: microscopy negative, antigen test positive.
As a Medical Laboratory Scientist or Technician, what would you do next?
Let’s discuss the correct laboratory approach. Share your answer in the comments! 👇


LabTalk with Isaac