Link to Pubmed [PMID] – 23687106
Link to DOI – 10.1093/trstmh/trt041
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2013 Jul; 107(7): 460-1
Epidemics of meningococcal meningitis occur periodically in the African ‘meningitis belt’ and are mainly, but not only, due to serogroup A.We tested a dipstick as a rapid detection test (RDT) to detect serogroup A using 401 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples.The detection limits were 10(5) CFU/ml with sensitivity and specificity for detecting serogroup A in CSF samples of 88% and 99%, respectively.The new RDT can be used in field surveillance of meningococcal meningitis to help characterize meningitis cases particularly after introduction of the conjugate vaccine against serogroup A.