Evaluation of Testryp CATT applied to samples of dried blood for the diagnosis of sleeping sickness.

Described is an evaluation of the card agglutination test (Testryp CATT) applied to dried blood collected on filter-paper. The sensitivity of the test was compared for samples of diluted sera, whole blood and dried blood. Sera diluted 1:8 gave similar CATT results to those obtained with dried blood. The false negative rate was 5.8%, and test specificity, 100.0%. Use of CATT with samples of dried blood is recommended for screening populations at risk for trypanosomiasis in situations where specialized surveillance teams are not available to test sera or whole blood.