Laboratory Detection of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Abstract

Laboratory investigations required to diagnose STDs in a developing country like India are not always feasible or cost effective. Traditionally, diagnosis and treatment of STDs has been dependant on syndromic approach based on clinical symptoms but strengthening lab services for specific diagnosis is important to prevent overtreatment and development of antimicrobial resistance. Rapid and cost effective POC (point of contact) tests with reasonable sensitivity and specificity are being developed to address STDs at primary health care level and are especially useful in centres with low patient return rate. More specific, tedious, quality controlled procedures like culture and NAAT (nucleic acid amplification technique) assays can be carried out in reference laboratories with high sample load and high throughput.