The ability to readily and accurately diagnose Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV, or human herpesvirus 8) infection in individuals remains a demanding task. Among the available diagnostic methods, sensitivities and specificities range widely, and many are inadequate for large-scale screening studies. We examined a serological algorithm for detecting KSHV in human sera having high se...

Toscana virus (TOSV) represents a frequent cause of viral meningitis in the Mediterranean Basin that remains neglected in neighbouring countries. We report a documented TOSV meningitis case in a traveller returning from Tuscany to Switzerland. While routine serological and PCR assays could not discriminate between TOSV and Sandfly fever Naples virus infection, a high-throughput sequencing perfo...

Patients with selective immunoglobulin (Ig) A deficiency have a 10- to 20-fold increased risk of celiac disease. In these patients, serological diagnosis of celiac disease can be difficult, since specific IgA-based assays are usually negative and IgG-specific antibody tests are insufficiently reliable. We describe a girl with selective IgA deficiency who had a troublesome diagnosis of celiac di...

Leptospirosis is a worldwide widespread zoonosis caused by Leptospira genus. We report an acute leptospirosis case in puppy housed at municipal kennel and the subsequent diagnostic investigations carried out on all dogs kennel. Laboratory investigation included mainly microagglutination test, real-time PCR, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) for Other agents of infection were excluded. The resu...

Syphilis, caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, is an infection recognized since antiquity. It was first reported at the end of the 15th century in Europe. Infections may be sexually transmitted as well as spread from an infected mother to her fetus or through blood transfusions. The laboratory diagnosis of syphilis infection is complex. Because this organism cannot be cul...

Background Evaluation of serological assays for hepatitis C (HCV) antibody screening is crucial ,as supplemental testing [Nucleic Acid Testing & Recombinant Immunoblot Assay (RIBA)] to verify anti-HCV reactive results is not widely practiced, due to limited availability and high cost. The current study was undertaken from January to May 2011, to evaluate 4 serological assays for HCV diagnosis, ...

There has been an increasing incidence of Lyme disease (LD) in Canada and the United States corresponding to the expanding range of the Ixodes tick vector and Lyme disease agent (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto). There are many diagnostic tests for LD available in North America, all of which have some performance issues, and physicians are concerned about the appropriate use and interpretati...

Natural history studies conducted over the past 15 years have shown that parenterally transmitted non-A non-B hepatitis infection frequently results in an indolent chronic disease with serious long-term consequences. The recent identification of nucleic acid sequences comprising the genome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has allowed the development of a serological assay based upon recombinant viral...