title: [Laboratory tests for infectious diseases and medical reimbursement].
abstract: Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, drug-resistant bacteria and nosocomial infection are becoming increasingly serious social problems. To control infectious diseases, it is important to develop effective therapies and to achieve complete prevention of pathogen transmission. For these purposes, rapid detection of pathogenic microorganisms is essential. Recent development and technical innovation in laboratory tests and diagnosis for infectious diseases are remarkable. New techniques such as antigen detection and genetic diagnosis, neither of which require conventional culture, have been intensively developed and introduced into clinical practice. These methods are now widely accepted as effective diagnostic tools because of their high specificity, high sensitivity and rapidity. In this article, we describe the burden of medical expenses under the law on novel infectious diseases and medical reimbursement for diagnostic tests for these diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Koshigaya Hospital Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Koshigaya 343-8555.
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shimetani
mesh_terms: D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement