Bhutta 1999.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	Prospective single centre study Healthcare setting: tertiary Point of recruitment: paediatric inpatients
Patient characteristics and setting	Countries: Pakistan Level of typhoid endemicity (Crump 2004): high Age: children (not formally stated) Gender distribution: male 41% female 49% Entry criteria: clinical suspicion of typhoid fever Sample size: 97
Index tests	Typhidot and Typhidot‐M
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Target condition: Salmonella Typhi Reference standard: Peripheral blood culture and/or bone marrow culture
Flow and timing	Prospective study. Timing unclear.
Comparative
Notes	Malaysian Biodiagnostic Research (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) donated rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs)
Methodological quality
Item	Authors' judgement	Risk of bias	Applicability concerns
DOMAIN 1: Patient Selection
Was a consecutive or random sample of patients enrolled?	Yes
Was a case‐control design avoided?	Yes
Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions?	Yes
		High	Low
DOMAIN 2: Index Test All tests
Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Unclear
If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified?	Yes
		Unclear	Low
DOMAIN 3: Reference Standard
Is the reference standards likely to correctly classify the target condition?	Yes
Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index tests?	Unclear
		Unclear	Low
DOMAIN 4: Flow and Timing
Was there an appropriate interval between index test and reference standard?	Unclear
Did all patients receive the same reference standard?	No
Were all patients included in the analysis?	Yes
		Low