Diagnostics
- We have found Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) RNA in human throat samples, apparently for the first time, suggesting that testing patients’ throat swabs for JEV RNA could be performed on a larger scale to investigate the epidemiology of JEV.
- Dengue ‘serotype’ can be determined by PCR assays of the pad in NS1 dengue positive rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), potentially facilitating surveillance of dengue serotypes in the large areas of Asia currently without such surveillance. This has been expanded to test utility of PCR of dengue RDTs for Zika and Chikungunya virus surveillance.
- We have completed a prospective study in 2015-2018 of the diagnostic accuracy of 5 different scrub typhus RDTs to determine which one(s) are the optimal for the diagnosis of this important disease in rural Asia.