Candida albicans Real-TM 100 tests

STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) refer to a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that are acquired through sexual activity. Some STDs, such as syphilis and gonorrhea, have been known for centuries — while others, such as HIV, have been identified only in the past few decades. STDs are caused by more than 25 infectious organisms. As more organisms are identified, the number of STDs contin ues to expand. Common STDs include: chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, HIV, HPV, syphilis, gardnerella, mycoplasma and trichomoniasis. Approximately 18.9 million new cases of STDs (excluding HIV) occur each year in the U.S. More than half of all people will be infected with an STD at some point in their lifetime. Many STDs affecting women show no early signs or symptoms. As a result, they go undetected and untreated until complications arise. The consequences of untreated STDs are often more serious in women, including: infertility, tubal pregnancy, chronic pain, cervical cancer and other complications. For example, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), a preventable complication from certain STDs, occurs in more than one million women each year. Early screening, diagnosis, counseling and treatment can stop the spread of STDs.Enzyme immunoassay(EIA) is the diagnostic method most commonly used for the laboratory diagnosis of STD infections, but EIA has a lower detection limit of 10000 elementary bodies and thus lacks sensitivity required for a screening assay, especially in asymptomatic men. Culture has been the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of many STD and have high sensitivity and specificity however due to a slow-growing tendency it takes 2-3 days to get a result and also requires an invasively taken specimen. Nucleic acid based amplification assays using polymerase chain reaction(PCR) have a lower detection limit of one to 10 elementary bodies and specificities comparable with culture. They also offer all the advantages of non-culture tests in terms of specimen transport, batching, and rapid processing time of approximately 2-3 hours . The improved sensitivity of these assays allows the use of non-invasive specimens such as first catch urine (FCU) specimens. PCR tests using FCU specimens have been shown to have sensitivities ranging from 87% to 97% for men and 82% to 93% for women with specificities of 98–100%.

Candida albicans is a diploid fungus (a form of yeast) and a causal agent of opportunistic oral and genital infections in humans.
Under normal circumstances, C. albicans lives in 80 percent of the human population with no harmful effects, although overgrowth results in candidiasis. Candidiasis is often observed in immunocompromised individuals such as HIV-positive patients but may also occur in the blood and in the genital tract.