[Sensitivity and fidelity of the rabies laboratory diagnosis].

The research article is about a method to evaluate the accuracy of rabies diagnosis in different animal species using the Fluorescent Rabies Antibodies Test and mouse inoculation.

Objective of the Research

• The aim of the research was to develop a method for assessing the minimum number of diagnosis failures for each animal species. This was conducted using two types of tests: the Fluorescent Rabies Antibodies Test, a common method for diagnosing rabies, and mouse inoculation, wherein a sample is injected into a mouse to observe for signs of disease.

Concept of Sensibility and Infidelity of Diagnosis

• The research introduces two terms in regards to disease diagnosis – “sensibility” and “infidelity of negative responses”.
• Sensibility refers to the percentage of correctly diagnosed rabid animals out of all rabid ones. In simpler terms, it measures how accurate the tests are in identifying positive cases of rabies.
• On the other hand, infidelity of negative responses refers to the percentage of false negatives in all negative diagnoses. It measures inaccuracies in the tests, specifically their failure to detect actual positive cases, thus classifying them as negative.

Variation in Sensibility and Infidelity Among Different Species

• The research found that the sensibility of the diagnosis varies according to the species of the animal examined. This ranged from a high sensitivity of 99.98% for foxes to a lower sensitivity of 98.61% for horses.
• The infidelity of negative responses also varied for each species, dependent on the sensitivity of the diagnosis and the ratio of non-rabid animals to the total number examined. However, the research did not provide specific figures or detail for these variations.

Implication of the Research

• The research highlights the importance of considering the species-specific variability in diagnostic tests for diseases like rabies. This could have implications for the effectiveness of disease control and prevention strategies in different species.