Immunodiagnostics for diagnosis and monitoring of infectious diseases in developing countries

The use of enzyme penicillinase has been well explored in stick enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for diagnosis, immunomonitoring and management of filaria and tuberculosis patients. This enzyme immunoassay is economic and well suited for simple field laboratories in developing countries. Indirect and inhibition enzyme immunoassays for detection of filarial antibodies and antigen respectively were found to be very useful in clinical cases confirming filaria aetiology in the absence of parasite in peripheral blood and for determining optimal DEC treatment for clinical relief and cure. Similarly, indirect ELISA for detecting tuberculous antibodies and sandwich ELISA for detecting circulating tubercular antigen were explored and found to be useful in detecting tuberculosis.