ABSTRACT: Accurate and timely diagnosis of animal rabies is the back bone of medical decision making for initiating post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of rabies exposed victims. As part of global efforts to eliminate dog mediated human rabies by 2030, there is an urgent need to improve laboratory facilities in the peripheral level. The traditional reference methods of rabies diagnosis, fluorescent antibody test or PCR have several limitations for wide scale implementation in settings that lack economic and infrastructural resources. This documentation is the report of evaluation of a chip based Realtime PCR test as a peripheral level diagnostic tool for rabies. The study demonstrated a sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 92.3, 100, and 95.8 percent respectively when compared with Fluorescent Antibody Test, the gold standard diagnostic test for rabies. The study, conducted on twenty four brain tissue samples of animals suspected of died due to rabies, concluded that TrueNat PCR is a simple, easy to use, economical and reliable rapid test for rabies diagnosis especially in resource poor peripheral settings.
Key words: Fluorescent Antibody Test, RT PCR, Immuno chromatographic method, TrueNat PCR.
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