Diagnosis of infectious diseases: complexity to convenience

Abstract

Infectious diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality around the world. Among the various infectious diseases, malaria, HIV, HCV, HBV, tuberculosis and influenza are amongst the most prevalent. Recently in 2019, the world had to suffer through the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to many deaths across the globe. Such infectious diseases can be prevented and contained and their transmission can be limited by their early detection and screening with the help of various diagnostic techniques. The development of systems that provide faster results with similar or better sensitivity and specificity is of utmost importance as they can play a critical role in the epidemiology and progression of a disease. Due to this, there is a need for the development of highly sensitive, specific and accurate techniques for infection control and prevention. In this paper, we include and discuss the recent advancements in diagnostic techniques that include improvements in molecular diagnostics, biosensor-based disease diagnosis and lateral flow assays and their capability to be used as point-of-care tests. The techniques have been compared with respect to their sensitivity, specificity and limit of detection. The goal of this review is to summarize the recent developments in the field of disease diagnostics that provide us with numerous new platforms. Discussion of such techniques which have future potential for point-of-care application could thus be used as a tool for directing research related to development or modification of techniques for disease diagnostics.