Immune trypanolysis test with blood spotted on filter paper for epidemiological surveillance of sleeping sickness

Oumou Camara, Mamadou Camara, Veerle Lejon, Hamidou Ilboudo, Hassane Sakande, Mamadou Léno, Philippe Büscher, Bruno Bucheton, Vincent Jamonneau

    Research output: Contribution to journalA1: Web of Science-articlepeer-review

    Abstract

    OBJECTIVES: The immune trypanolysis test (TL) is an accurate sero-diagnostic tool increasingly implemented for sleeping sickness medical surveillance, but it is restricted to the reference laboratories. To facilitate storage and transport of the test specimen, we developed a protocol for the examination of blood spotted on filter paper (TL-fp) that can be stored and shipped at ambient temperature. We compared its performance with the classical TL on plasma (TL-pl) that needs to be kept frozen until use.

    METHODS: The study was conducted in active foci of the Republic of Guinea. In total, 438 specimens from treated and untreated sleeping sickness patients and serological suspects were tested with both methods.

    RESULT: TL-fp gave significantly less positive results than TL-pl, but all the confirmed sleeping sickness cases were positive with the TL-fp protocol.

    CONCLUSION: TL-fp appears to offer a good compromise between feasibility and sensitivity to detect currently infected subjects who play a role in the transmission of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and is useful for contributing to the elimination of gambiense sleeping sickness.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalTropical Medicine and International Health
    Volume19
    Issue number7
    Pages (from-to)828-831
    Number of pages4
    ISSN1360-2276
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • Animals
    • Antibodies, Protozoan
    • Guinea
    • Humans
    • Mass Screening
    • Neglected Diseases
    • Population Surveillance
    • Sensitivity and Specificity
    • Specimen Handling
    • Trypanosoma brucei gambiense
    • Trypanosomiasis, African

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