Salmonella infections: an Update, Detection and Control Strategies

Abstract

Salmonella belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family is commonly divided into Typhoidal and non-typhoidal group. Clinical manifestations can range from gastroenteritis, bacteremia or septicemia without gastrointestinal (GI) upset, enteric fever, chronic carriage to focal infections like osteomyelitis, meningitis, endocarditis etc. Conventional diagnostic tests like blood, stool, food sample culture have a long turnaround time. Chromogenic media modification reduces identification time. Apart from Widal test and ELISA, rapid point of care serological tests like Tubex TF, Typhidot are advantageous in basic set up but limited by modest accuracy in high burden settings. Apart from immunological assays, other diagnostic modalities include PCR, mass spectrophotometry, spectroscopy, optical phenotyping, biosensors etc. Rising drug resistance of Salmonella to first line Ampicillin, Chloramphenicol and Cotrimoxazole with increasing nonsusceptibility to fluoroquinolones and 3rd generation cephalosporin for past few decades is a public threat. Prevention and control measures include basic sanitation, safe water access, safe food handling, public education, physical, chemical, biocontrol methods, vaccination etc. Targeting the menace of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella species needs a collaborative effort like One Health approach which optimizes the public health, animal and environmental health and reduce the dependency on antibiotics.