A multi-centre evaluation of the card indirect agglutination test for trypanosomiasis (TrypTect CIATT)

A version of the card indirect agglutination test for trypanosomiasis, the TrypTect CIATT®, was evaluated for the diagnosis of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and T. b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness. The results of this antigen-detection test indicated high relative sensitivity (99.3%) and specificity (99.4%), and also much higher prevalences of infection in the general populations of endemic foci (27.9% for T. b. gambiense and 21.8% for T. b. rhodesiense) than detected by parasitological diagnosis (1.6% and 1.1%, respectively).TrypTect CIATT detected (and could therefore be used for the diagnosis of) non-patent infections. Among the suspected cases (i.e. those initially found to be parasite-negative but to be antigen-positive), trypanosomes were detected in 29 (4.2%) of those checked at a 3-month follow-up, and 17 more such suspects when they were followed up at 6–18 months. Moreover, a high proportion of blood samples from a random sample of the rest of the suspects tested positive for trypanosome-specific...