Conference Abstract | Volume 9, Abstract 0046 (ConfProc7) | Published: 30 Jun 2026
Cletus Ballu1,&, Chrysantus Kubio1,2, David Bening3, Leno Anara1,4, Abubakar Isaac5, Norbert Appiah1, Basil Kaburi1, Ernest Kenu1
1Ghana FELTP, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana, 2Northern Regional Health Directorate, Ghana Health Service, Tamale, Ghana, 3Tamale Teaching Hospital, Department of Family Medicine, Tamale, Ghana, 4Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Sierra Leone, 5Methodist Hospital, Department of General Surgery, Apagya- Kumasi, Ashanti Region
&Corresponding author: Basil Kaburi; Ghana FELTP, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana. Email: kbbenduri@gmail.com
Received: 29 Aug 2025, Accepted: 28 Oct 2025, Published: 30 Jun 2026
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Tamale Teaching Hospital, Typhoid Fever, Salmonella enterica, Enteric fever
©Cletus Ballu et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Cletus Ballu et al. Typhoid fever epidemiology in a tertiary health facility in Northern Ghana, 2021- 2024. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2026;9(ConfProc7):046. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO7-0046
Typhoid fever remains a neglected yet important cause of morbidity and mortality in Ghana. National estimates obscure district-level heterogeneities. Inconsistent reporting and fragmented surveillance between tertiary facilities and district health systems further undermine the accuracy of local burden estimates. We described the burden, complications, and predictors of mortality among patients managed at Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).
We analysed data on all typhoid fever cases managed at TTH between January 2021 and December 2024. Cases were diagnosed by clinical and laboratory assessment using the ICD – 10. We extracted, cleaned, and analyzed data in Stata BE18. We described patient characteristics using summary statistics (95% CI). We assessed temporal trends and thresholds using the CUSUM method and mapped spatial distributions by district using QGIS 3.32.3. We analyzed mortality predictors using logistic regression at p<0.05.
Of 1,396 reported typhoid cases, 39.3% were hospitalized. The median age was 17 years (IQR: 23), with the highest burden (46.7%) among children aged 0–15 years. Females constituted 53.2%, and students/pupils were 56.3%. Transmission was sustained, peaking predominantly in 2023 with 11 missed outbreaks. Most cases, 42.2% (345/817) originated from Tamale Metropolis. Complications occurred in 47.6% (664/1396) of patients, of which 56.1% (390/664) were unspecified. Among specified complications, extra-intestinal complications predominated 86.9% (238/274). The overall mortality rate was 2.6% (37/1,396). Admitting a case-patient for 1–5 days (aOR = 4.14, 95% CI: 0.44–5.05) and being a child/student (aOR = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.07–0.90) were significant predictors of mortality.
Typhoid is endemic in northern Ghana. High complication rates and early-admission mortality reaffirm the need to strengthen emergency care, early diagnosis, rapid referral, and targeted interventions like the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV) in high-burden districts. Missed outbreaks likewise underscore the need to improve facility-based surveillance.
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