Gonorrhoea diagnostics: An update

Abstract

Diagnosis of gonorrhoea is an ongoing challenge. The organism is fastidious requiring meticulous collection and transport for successful cultivation. Asymptomatic infections are common which go undetected by conventional methods thereby leading to continued transmission and the risk of complications. The nucleic acid amplification tests, now increasingly used in developed countries, offer improved sensitivity compared to bacterial culture. However, these continue to suffer sequence related problems leading to false positive and false negative results. Further, these cannot be used for generation of data on antibiotic susceptibility because genetic markers of antibiotic resistance to recommended therapies have not been fully characterised. They are unaffordable in a setting like ours where reliance is placed on syndromic approach for sexually transmitted infection (STI) management. The use of syndromic approach has resulted in a considerable decline in the number of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates that have been cultured for diagnostic purposes. Many laboratories formerly doing so are no longer performing culture for gonococci, and the basic skills have been lost. There is a need to not only revive this skill but also adopt newer technologies that can aid in accurate diagnosis in a cost-effective manner. There is room for innovation that can facilitate the development of a point-of-care test for this bacterial STI.