Journal of Tropical Diseases & Public Health

Abstract

Confirmation of No Influence of Loa loa and Mansonella perstans on the Card Agglutination Test for Trypanosomosis used for Serological Screening of Human African Trypanosomosis

Pion SD, Njiokou F, Boussinesq M, Simo G and Philippe Truc

In central Africa, the geographical distribution of human African trypanosomosis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense overlaps that of Loa loa and Mansonella perstans filariases. This study investigated whether the presence of blood borne M. perstans and L. loa microfilariae interferes with the agglutination reaction of CATT (Card Agglutination Test for Trypanosomosis), used for mass screening of HAT. 146 CATT positive participants and 146 age and sex matched CATT negative subjects were recruited in three sites in Cameroon and one in the Republic of Congo. CATT positive persons were not more frequently infected by L. loa and M. perstans than CATT negative ones. This unique matched case-control study confirmed a previous study and does not bring any evidence of the influence of L. loa or M. perstans on serodiagnosis of HAT in the field using CATT/ T. b. gambiense LiTat 1.3. HAT screening activities can be performed without controlling for filariasis at the same time.