Blood culture is considered the reference standard for typhoid diagnosis in Cameroon, as confirmed by clinicians and medical laboratory scientists surveyed by this project. However, it requires sophisticated equipment and a large blood sample of 2 - 10 ml due to the low bacterial load in peripheral blood of 0.1–1.0 colony-forming units/mL in symptomatic patients \cite{Khanam_2013}. It has very high specificity but poor sensitivity, estimated at only 61% in a 2016 systematic review \cite{Mogasale_2016}. Infections can be detected by culturing blood or stool samples but blood is preferred for differential diagnosis of active infections because there can be asymptomatic faecal shedding following the infection which may coincide with a different symptomatic illness, giving an incorrect diagnosis \cite{standards2018}.