Ante mortem diagnosis of human rabies using saliva samples: comparison of real time and conventional RT-PCR techniques.

Background: Rabies is an enzootic and fatal disease and is still a major problem in developing countries. Ante mortem diagnosis in human cases is necessary for medical management of the patient and to ensure appropriate post-exposure treatment of contacts. Both conventional RT-PCR and Real time PCR (TaqMan) have been described for the detection of rabies virus RNA from saliva and tissue respectively, however to date, there have been no studies comparing conventional and real time PCR assays for detection of rabies virus nucleic acid using saliva samples for ante mortem diagnosis.

Development and evaluation of an enzyme immunoassay for rapid diagnosis of rabies in humans and animals.

The presently advocated tests for rapid diagnosis of rabies such as fluorescent antibody test (FAT) is expensive and requires expertise to carry out and interpret the results. In this study we have developed and evaluated a simple enzyme immuno-assay (EIA) to detect rabies antigen in the brain specimens of animals and humans. We have also evaluated the utility of this test in ante mortem diagnosis of human rabies.