ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2016
Detection of Onchocerca volvulus in Skin Snips by Microscopy and Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction: Implications for Monitoring and Evaluation Activities.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of human onchocerciasis in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.African health sciences · 2025Pooled it
- The insufficiency of circulating miRNA and DNA as diagnostic tools or as biomarkers of treatment efficacy for Onchocerca volvulus.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Assessing diagnostic accuracy of onchocerciasis rapid diagnostic tests using Bayesian latent class models.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- The risk of onchocerciasis infection by human population movements between high and low transmission settings in Ghana.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Onchocerciasis overview: pathogenesis, clinical spectrum, and therapeutic challenges of a neglected tropical disease.Frontiers in parasitology · 2026Review
- Performance of novel onchocerciasis rapid diagnostic tests in a field setting in South Sudan.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Epidemiological assessment of onchocerciasis in previously unmapped villages for ivermectin distribution in Fer-Fer District, Somali Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Beyond Tradition: Exploring Cutting-Edge Approaches for Accurate Diagnosis of Human Filariasis.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Chorioretinitis among Immigrant and Travellers. Comment on Mansour et al. Presumed Onchocerciasis Chorioretinitis Spilling over into North America, Europe and Middle East.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Procedure for Handling and Storage ofTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Article
- Acceptability of test and treat with doxycycline against Onchocerciasis in an area of persistent transmission in Massangam Health District, Cameroon.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- A Systematic Review on Suitability of Molecular Techniques for Diagnosis and Research into Infectious Diseases of Concern in Resource-Limited Settings.Current issues in molecular biology · 2022Review
- Immunoinformatics Design and Assessment of a Multiepitope Antigen (OvMCBL02) for Onchocerciasis Diagnosis and Monitoring.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Relationship between skin snip and Ov16 ELISA: Two diagnostic tools for onchocerciasis in a focus in Cameroon after two decades of ivermectin-based preventive chemotherapy.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Associates' β-Tubulin Isotype-1 Gene in Onchocerca volvulus Populations in Ivermectin-Treated Communities in Taraba State, Nigeria.Acta parasitologica · 2022Article
- Tandem Use of OvMANE1 and Ov-16 ELISA Tests Increases the Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Human Onchocerciasis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Development and Validation of Novel PCR Assays for the Diagnosis of Bovine Stephanofilariasis and Detection ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Duplex Real-Time PCR Assay for Clinical Differentiation ofThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Article
- Status of parasitological indicators and morbidity burden of onchocerciasis after years of successive implementation of mass distribution of ivermectin in selected communities of Yeki and Asosa districts, Ethiopia.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Comparison of Diagnostic Tests forPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microscopic evaluation of skin biopsies is the monitoring and evaluation (M and E) method currently used by multiple onchocerciasis elimination programs in Africa. However, as repeated mass drug administration suppresses microfilarial loads, the sensitivity and programmatic utility of skin snip microscopy is expected to decrease. Using a pan-filarial real-time polymerase chain reaction with melt curve analysis (qPCR-MCA), we evaluated 1) the use of a single-step molecular assay for detecting and identifying Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae in residual skin snips and 2) the sensitivity of skin snip microscopy relative to qPCR-MCA. Skin snips were collected and examined with routine microscopy in hyperendemic regions of Uganda and Ethiopia (N= 500 each) and "residual" skin snips (tissue remaining after induced microfilarial emergence) were tested with qPCR-MCA. qPCR-MCA detected Onchocerca DNA in 223 residual snips: 139 of 147 microscopy(+) and 84 among microscopy(-) snips, suggesting overall sensitivity of microscopy was 62.3% (139/223) relative to qPCR-MCA (75.6% in Uganda and 28.6% in Ethiopia). These findings demonstrate the insufficient sensitivity of skin snip microscopy for reliable programmatic monitoring. Molecular tools such as qPCR-MCA can augment sensitivity and provide diagnostic confirmation of skin biopsies and will be useful for evaluation or validation of new onchocerciasis M and E tools.
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Registered trials
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