[Detection of typhi antibodies by latex agglutination].

A latex test for immunodiagnosis of murine typhus, using erythrocyte-sensitizing substance from Rickettsia prowazekii absorbed to latex particles, has been developed. The test was evaluated with a total of 234 healthy person and non-typhus patient sera, 89 single and 63 paired typhus patient sera. The positive rate was 92.1% for paired and 80.9% for single sera from patients with typhus. The test gave results consistent with those given by the microimmunofluorescence (Micro-IF) and microagglutination (MA) tests. The sensitivity of the test was higher than Weil-Felix (P less than 0.05) test. This test was simple, rapid, sensitive and specific.