title: Performance of commercially available enzyme immunoassays for detection of antibodies against herpes simplex virus type 2 in African populations.
abstract: Data are accumulating on the performance of enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for the detection of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection in North America and Europe, but little is known about their performance in other populations. Nine test kits were evaluated with 330 serum samples from sub-Saharan Africa. The tests were first compared to the monoclonal antibody (MAb) EIA (Central Public Health Laboratory, London, United Kingdom). Samples that gave discordant results in the MAb EIA and in the three tests that performed best compared to the MAb EIA were tested by Western blotting (University of Washington, Seattle). A random sample of concordant samples was also tested, and the sensitivities and specificities of the different tests were calculated, taking into account this sampling strategy. The sensitivities of the tests ranged from 86 to 100%; the specificities ranged from 47 to 99%. The tests that performed best were the Gull Premier EIA (sensitivity, 86.3%; specificity, 97.6%) and the Kalon Biological (sensitivity, 92.3%; specificity, 97.7%) and Biokit (sensitivity, 86.7%; specificity, 92.6%) tests. It cannot be assumed that enzyme immunoassays for the detection of HSV-2 infection that perform well in industrialized countries will perform equally well in other populations.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Eddy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Dyck
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buvé
authors.forename: Helen A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Judith R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Glynn
authors.forename: David W G
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Bénédicte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Deken
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Parry
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hayes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D018258:Herpesvirus 2, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic