Infectious Diseases Overview
Healthscope Molecular provides a comprehensive range of molecular tests for the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases.
- Blood borne viral infections
- Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s)
- Respiratory related infections
Assays for Blood Borne Viral Infections:
- Hepatitis B DNA PCR
- Hepatitis C RNA PCR
- Hepatitis C Viral Load
- Hepatitis C genotyping
Assays for Sexually Transmitted Infections:
- Chlamydia trachomatis
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae
- Herpes Simplex types 1 & 2
- Human Papillomavirus
- HIV Viral Load
Assays for Respiratory Related Infections:
- o Bordetella pertussis PCR
- o Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR
The routine diagnostic and more specialised infectious disease molecular testing has more recently been brought together under its own specialty laboratory at Healthscope Molecular.
This has allowed the research and development of new molecular tests to be maximised. It also concentrates the expertise, test volumes and sophisticated ‘state of the art’ equipment required to achieve frequent testing and rapid turn around of results.
Testing Frequencies
High volume assays such as those for Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea are performed daily excluding Sundays with negative results being reported the same or following day. All positive results are confirmed by retesting the original sample which adds an additional day to final reporting. Medium volume assays such as HIV viral loads are run three to four times a week with results available on the day of testing, whilst low volume non-urgent assays such as Hepatitis C viral loads and Hepatitis B DNA are tested once weekly or fortnightly with results reported the following day. Infrequently required assays such as TB PCR are performed as requested.
Quality Assurance
Both commercially manufactured and ‘in house’ developed assays are employed. ‘In house’ assays are evaluated and validated to the requirements and standards of the National Pathology Accreditation Advisory Council (NPAAC) which sets the standards against which laboratories undertaking human pathology testing are accredited against by the National Accreditation Testing Authority (NATA). ‘In house’ assays are developed where there is either no suitable commercial assay available or where an improved assay that out performs available commercial assays can be developed. Our ‘in house’ assays have inbuilt controls to detect any inhibition of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification step as well as also detecting the presence (or absence) of human DNA in the test sample. These two controls are crucial in guarding against false negative results and are often not incorporated into commercial PCR assays.
Healthscope Molecular actively participates in external quality assurance and proficiency testing programs for infectious disease. We are currently enrolled in programs run by the following:
- Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
- National Reference Laboratory.