Rapid test for trachoma is inexpensive, sensitive, easy to use

British researchers have developed a dipstick-type tool to help physicians in remote areas quickly and easily diagnose trachoma, according to a University of Cambridge news release. To date, more than 600 children have been tested, and the assay has proven twice as effective as traditional testing methods, the release noted.

According to the university, the dipstick “produces results in less than half an hour and can be used in remote areas” by trained staff who may have access to only the most basic elements. Researchers screened 664 children living in Tanzania for trachoma. The areas selected were known to have high rates of trachoma in children, but had never received mass treatment with azithromycin before swab samples were obtained. There were 264 children in group 1, with a mean age of 4 years old; 200 children in group 2 with an average age of 8 years old; and 200 children in group 3, with an average age of 7 years old.

Local health workers had been fully trained on the assay within an hour, the university said. Main outcomes were performance outcomes of the point-of-care assay and the presence of trachoma using a commercial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a comparator.

The “wafer-thin, 8 cm long trachoma dipstick is an adaptation of the award-winning ‘FirstBurst’ diagnostic test to detect the sexually-transmitted form of Chlamydia,” the release said.

The tests were evaluated in a village “office” that had no electricity or running water, the university said. The total number of PCR-positive children was 23% in group 1 (60 children), 28% in group 2 (55 children) and 7% in group 3 (13 children). For all three groups combined, the point-of-care assay was better than assessment of the presence of the clinical sign of the follicular trachomatous inflammation.

The study is published in the May issue of The Lancet.