Lateral Flow Assays are Essential Tools in the Battle against Infectious Diseases and are Crucial in the Long-term Control of Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness or Human African Trypanosomosis (HAT), and related Animal African
Trypanosomosis (AAT) diseases, are parasitic infections that are still causing significant human
suffering in sub-Sahara Africa. Through the introduction of point-of-care lateral flow diagnostic assays
(LFAs), the surveillance of trypanosomosis has improved in recent years, leading to a significant
reduction in the number of human infections. While this in itself provides proof of the power of
systemic testing, the reduction in case prevalence results in a new requirement for better future
screening tools, with an emphasis on improved positive predictive value (PPV), while maintain the
high specificity and sensitivity of the current tests. This chapter first outlines the technical details of the
different LFA formats available today and will subsequently cover the successes and challenges of
the current available LFAs for trypanosomosis, as well as prototype designs that have recently been
published.