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A preface on advances in diagnostics for infectious and parasitic diseases: detecting parasites of medical and veterinary importance

Stothard, Russell ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9370-3420 and Adams, Emily ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0816-2835 (2014) 'A preface on advances in diagnostics for infectious and parasitic diseases: detecting parasites of medical and veterinary importance'. Parasitology, Vol 141, Issue 14, pp. 1781-1788.

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Abstract

SUMMARY: There are many reasons why detection of parasites of medical and veterinary importance is vital and where novel diagnostic and surveillance tools are required. From a medical perspective alone, these originate from a desire for better clinical management and rational use of medications. Diagnosis can be at the individual-level, at close to patient settings in testing a clinical suspicion or at the community-level, perhaps in front of a computer screen, in classification of endemic areas and devising appropriate control interventions. Thus diagnostics for parasitic diseases has a broad remit as parasites are not only tied with their definitive hosts but also in some cases with their vectors/intermediate hosts. Application of current diagnostic tools and decision algorithms in sustaining control programmes, or in elimination settings, can be problematic and even ill-fitting. For example in resource-limited settings, are current diagnostic tools sufficiently robust for operational use at scale or are they confounded by on-the-ground realities; are the diagnostic algorithms underlying public health interventions always understood and well-received within communities which are targeted for control? Within this Special Issue (SI) covering a variety of diseases and diagnostic settings some answers are forthcoming. An important theme, however, throughout the SI is to acknowledge that cross-talk and continuous feedback between development and application of diagnostic tests is crucial if they are to be used effectively and appropriately.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Special Issue - Symposia of the British Society for Parasitology Volume 52 Advances in diagnostics for parasitic diseases.
Subjects: QX Parasitology > QX 20 Research (General)
QY Clinical Pathology > QY 25 Laboratory techniques and procedure
WB Practice of Medicine > Diagnosis > General Diagnosis > WB 141 General works
WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 695 Parasitic diseases (General)
WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 765 Prevention and control
Faculty: Department: Biological Sciences > Department of Tropical Disease Biology
Digital Object Identifer (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182014001309
Depositing User: Martin Chapman
Date Deposited: 03 Dec 2014 12:32
Last Modified: 02 Dec 2019 12:52
URI: https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/4614

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