Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6137449 | Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene | 2009 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
There is a tendency to neglect diagnostic issues in the era of 'preventive chemotherapy' in human helminthiases. However, accurate diagnosis cannot be overemphasized for adequate patient management and monitoring of community-based control programmes. Implicit is a diagnostic dilemma: the more effective interventions are in reducing helminth egg excretion, the less sensitive direct parasitological tests become. Here, experiences gained thus far with the FLOTAC technique for diagnosing common soil-transmitted helminth infections are summarized. A single FLOTAC has higher sensitivity than multiple Kato-Katz thick smears in detecting low-intensity infections. Further validation of the FLOTAC technique in different epidemiological settings is warranted, including diagnosis of intestinal schistosomiasis and food-borne trematodiases.
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Authors
Stefanie Knopp, Dominik Glinz, Laura Rinaldi, Khalfan A. Mohammed, Eliézer K. N'Goran, J. Russell Stothard, Hanspeter Marti, Giuseppe Cringoli, David Rollinson, Jürg Utzinger,