Enteric fever burden in North Jakarta, Indonesia: a prospective, community-based study

We undertook a prospective community-based study in North Jakarta, Indonesia, to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, seasonality, etiologic agent, and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of enteric fever.

Following a census, treatment centre-based surveillance for febrile illness was conducted for two-years. Clinical data and a blood culture were obtained from each patient.

In a population of 160,261, we detected 296 laboratory-confirmed enteric fever cases during the surveillance period, of which 221 (75%) were typhoid fever and 75 (25%)  were paratyphoid fever.  The overall incidence of typhoid and paratyphoid cases was 1.4, and 0.5 per thousand populations per year, respectively. Although the incidence of febrile episodes evaluated was highest among children under 5 years of age at 92.6 per thousand persons per year, we found that the burden of typhoid fever was greatest among children between 5 and 20 years of age. Paratyphoid fever occurred most commonly in children and was infrequent in adults.

Enteric fever is a public health problem in North Jakarta with a substantial proportion due to paratyphoid fever. The results highlight the need for control strategies against enteric fever.