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Improved Molecular Diagnostics For Soil-Transmitted Helminths, Nils Pilotte

Doctoral Dissertations

Current World Health Organization recommendations for the diagnosis of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) rely on antiquated microscopy-based techniques that lack both diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. While sufficient for providing rough estimates of infection frequency and intensity within high prevalence settings, these techniques lack the capacity to effectively estimate infection levels following successful intervention efforts, as worm burdens decline and community prevalences decrease. Furthermore, an expanding body of evidence is suggesting that microscopy-based misdiagnosis of infection is likely a larger concern then previously believed. As such, with an increase in programmatic support for transmission interruption and an escalating belief in the possibility …