Research: trachoma diagnostic
12 May 2006
The development of a pioneering new diagnostic tool for trachoma could help to eradicate the most common cause of blindness due to infection, according to research published in The Lancet this week.
Dr Helen Lee and Claude-Edouard Michel of the Diagnostic Development Unit at the University of Cambridge, and collaborators, have developed and trialled a rapid dipstick test that can diagnose the presence of infection within half an hour.
The new 'point-of-care (POC) test' was developed specifically for use in developing countries, as it is cheap, quick and simple to perform, and requires no expensive equipment or skilled labour.
Dr Lee and team then compared the accuracy of this new dipstick test with the gold standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in a trial in remote trachoma-endemic villages in Tanzania.
The trial, involving 664 children aged 1-9, showed that the rapid test was more accurate in identifying the presence of infection, correctly predicting over 97 per cent of cases, against 43.6 per cent for the current method.
The findings could profoundly influence the future diagnosis and treatment strategies for trachoma worldwide.
Trachoma is hyperendemic in many of the most remote poor rural areas of Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Australia and the Middle East. If the infection is caught in time, a single dose of the antibiotic azithromycin results in a complete cure.
See also
- New diagnostic tool has potential to improve treatment of trachoma (Press release: 12 May 2006)
- Funding: Diagnosing trachoma (News: 7 March 2006)
- Trachoma CD-ROM (A ' Topics in International Health' teaching aid)
- Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust
External links
- About Trachoma on the International Trachoma Initiative website