Current and Future Trends in the Laboratory Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections

Giorgia Caruso, Anna Giammanco, Roberta Virruso and Teresa Fasciana
Additional contact information
Giorgia Caruso: U.O.C. of Microbiology and Virology, ARNAS “Civico, Di Cristina and Benfratelli”, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Anna Giammanco: Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Roberta Virruso: U.O.C. of Microbiology, Virology and Parassitology, A.O.U.P. “Paolo Giaccone”, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Teresa Fasciana: Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to exert a considerable public health and social burden globally, particularly for developing countries. Due to the high prevalence of asymptomatic infections and the limitations of symptom-based (syndromic) diagnosis, confirmation of infection using laboratory tools is essential to choose the most appropriate course of treatment and to screen at-risk groups. Numerous laboratory tests and platforms have been developed for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, trichomoniasis, genital mycoplasmas, herpesviruses, and human papillomavirus. Point-of-care testing is now a possibility, and microfluidic and high-throughput omics technologies promise to revolutionize the diagnosis of STIs. The scope of this paper is to provide an updated overview of the current laboratory diagnostic tools for these infections, highlighting their advantages, limitations, and point-of-care adaptability. The diagnostic applicability of the latest molecular and biochemical approaches is also discussed.

Keywords: sexually transmitted infections; diagnostic; microscopy; culture; immunoassay; NAAT; point-of-care test; biosensing; metagenomics; culturomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1038/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1038/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1038-:d:486484

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().