A South African study has found a new rapid gonorrhea test, NG-LFA, to be effective. The test, approved by the World Health Organization and the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics, costs under $3 and delivers results in less than 30 minutes. It demonstrated a high sensitivity and specificity in both urine and vaginal swab specimens. The researchers suggest that the NG-LFA could help manage gonorrhea and decrease unnecessary antibiotic use in low- and middle-income countries.
The study tested 400 patients using both the NG-LFA and the Xpert CT/NG polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. All positive specimens were also tested using N gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence typing (NG-MAST), which identified 93 different sequence types in 156 LFA-positive specimens.
The study’s authors noted the NG-LFA’s accuracy in detecting N gonorrhoeae in symptomatic patients at primary health-care facilities in South Africa. They also emphasized the test’s simplicity, precision, and affordability.
In related news, a study of nearly 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway found no risk to infants from COVID-19 vaccines given during pregnancy. The study, published in JAMA, used national birth registry data and found that the mortality rate for babies born to vaccinated mothers was half that of babies born to unvaccinated mothers.