Serodiagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis infection

Publication date: Available online 19 December 2019Source: Methods in MicrobiologyAuthor(s): Rahmah Noordin, Norsyahida Arifin, Dinesh Balachandra, Hussain AhmadAbstractStrongyloides stercoralis infection is an emerging healthcare problem worldwide due to the increasing number of migrant populations from endemic regions, transplantations, malignancies, and inflammatory conditions, coupled with advances in immunosuppressive therapies. The highly fatal hyperinfection should be prevented by testing at-risk people and symptomatic patients using reliable diagnostics. However, diagnosis of the infection is challenging since many infected people are asymptomatic, the larvae output in the stool is usually low and intermittent, and the parasite can survive in the host for decades via autoinfection. Due to the limitations of the laboratory diagnosis of the parasite by microscopy, culture, and molecular methods, serodiagnosis is essential to be performed in most cases. This chapter describes various aspects of serological diagnosis of the infection, including the rationale, antibody kinetics, assay formats, applications, and challenges. The serodiagnostic gaps that need to be addressed and recommendations for the way forward are presented.
Source: Methods in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research