STI screening: basic methods

STI testing has always been a delicate topic, but talking about it is vital. Too high level of infection allows us to say that these sexually transmitted infections are one of the most important and most important problems of modern medicine, which in recent years has become quite actively explored. In our time, scientists have discovered about 30 such diseases. And some of them can lead to serious consequences.

Survey on STI today has reached extraordinary heyday. The main method of examination is laboratory diagnostics. However, when giving tests for STIs, the patient should remember that there is no one method of examination suitable for all people or he has not yet been found. Each method gives a two-faced result. Not every positive result is really that, and vice versa. Therefore, not only the tests themselves are needed, but also consultations with the dermatovenereologist. Only an experienced doctor, a true expert in his field, can compare all the data and make a correct diagnosis.

Therefore, a doctor's consultation is an integral part of the STI screening, since only a specialist:

• Preliminary assesses complaints and symptoms. Then he puts forward an assumption (just a guess) about the nature of your illness;
• Sends tests for STIs.

Further in the laboratory, his colleagues take up the matter. They:

• Directly make the collection of the test material;
• Check it for the presence of an STI.

And again, the tests come to the treating doctor. He already reports the results of laboratory research, thus closing this chain.

There is also a method of DNA-diagnostics, which allows to conduct an examination on STI. It reveals the DNA of the pathogen in the test material. Such diagnostics are carried out by two methods - LCR (Ligase Chain Reaction) and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). Please note that this method has nothing to do with the study of human DNA for various purposes. The only thing that connects them is only the object with which they have to work.

In PCR and LCR, some actions are carried out, during which the infection itself is identified (if, of course, it was in the material under study), and it, in turn, is multiply "multiplied". High-precision equipment will find it, in whatever quantities it is in this material. The accuracy of this method exceeds 95%, which is an excellent result in our time.

An STI test is now possible by determining the presence of antibodies in the human body. For this study, a blood test is taken. It determines the presence of certain antibodies. Sometimes this method is used to control during treatment.

A "smear study" is also widely used. It can be done at any time, but the most accurate result of this study is given only if the infection was recently "picked up" or became quite obvious.

Remember: in order to obtain reliable information about the presence of STIs in the body, it is necessary to undergo several different examinations.