BACKGROUND The bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the leading causes of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. Since no simple and effective tool exists to diagnose C. trachomatis infections, we evaluated a novel point-of-care (POC) test, aQcare Chlamydia TRF kit, which uses europium-chelated nanoparticles and a time-resolved fluorescence reader. METHODS The test performance was eval...

Antibiotic resistance is threatening to make gonorrhoea untreatable. Point-of-care (POC) tests that detect resistance promise individually tailored treatment, but might lead to more treatment and higher levels of resistance. We investigate the impact of POC tests on antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea. We used data about the prevalence and incidence of gonorrhoea in men who have sex with men (MSM) ...

BACKGROUND Chlamydia trachomatis infections can lead to serious and costly sequelae. Because chlamydia is most often asymptomatic, many infected youth do not seek testing. Entry to a detention system provides an opportunity to screen and treat many at-risk youth. GOAL The goal of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of screening male youth for chlamydia on entry to detention. ST...

west nile virus (wnv) is an important zoo-notic agent having a wide host range. due to its emergence with increased virulence in a wide geographical range, its monitoring becomes im-perative. development of more rapid and sensitive molecular techniques for instance reverse trans-criptase-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr), reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (rt-lamp) a...

BACKGROUND Anal lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) infections, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis biovar L (Ct+/LGV+), are endemic among men who have sex with men (MSM). Anal non-LGV biovar Ct infections (Ct+/LGV-) can be eradicated with 1 week doxycycline, whereas Ct+/LGV+ infections require 3-week doxycycline. To differentiate Ct+/LGV+ from Ct+/LGV- infections, biovar-specific Nucleic Acid Amplifica...

OBJECTIVES Surveillance for Neisseria gonorrhoeae azithromycin resistance is of growing importance given increasing use of ceftriaxone and azithromycin dual therapy for gonorrhoea treatment. In this study, we developed two real-time PCR methods for direct detection of two key N. gonorrhoeae 23S rRNA mutations associated with azithromycin resistance. METHODS The real-time PCR assays, 2611-PCR ...

Techniques using nucleic acid amplification have not had the same amount of impact on research and clinical diagnosis in the developing world as that observed in the West. This is unsurprising when the costs and infrastructure required to perform nucleic acid amplification are considered. Despite this, nucleic acid amplification is being increasingly used in both research and diagnosis in count...

Quality is sine qua non of healthcare services. Laboratory driven Management Systems (QMS) are key to provide quality diagnosis. Missed diagnosis due laboratory lacunae stymies Tuberculosis (TB) control measures, amplifies morbidity, mortality and, disease transmission. Hence, a pilot was conceptualized with Central TB Division, National Elimination Program (NTEP), Ministry Health and Family We...

DOI: 10.5581/1516-8484.20130064 Since 1999 blood transfusion services around the world have been implementing nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) to screen for hepatitis C (HCV) RNA, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA and hepatitis B (HBV) DNA to improve the safety of the blood supply. Initially HCV RNA and HIV RNA NAAT screening was implemented and more recently HBV DNA NAAT screening ...