Gonorrhoea test leading to overdiagnosis

Description

The overuse of a particular test for gonorrhoea in women who are at low risk is resulting in false-positive results and overdiagnosis, and is probably leading to unnecessary treatment, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Researchers from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC), Monash University, Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne and University of Melbourne, led by Dr Eric Chow, have found that although the number of positive results for gonorrhoea in Victorian women tested by the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) tripled between 2008 and 2013, the prevalence of cases confirmed by culture did not change over time.