Test Uncertainty

Individuals infected by the parasite Trypanosoma bruceigambiense will, if untreated, develop the life-threatening diseaseHuman African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). The diseaseaffects rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa, but controlmeasures have substantially reduced the prevalence.

A rapid diagnostic test (HAT Sero-K-SeT), that does not requirea cold chain for storage, has been developed and tested. Theestimated sensitivity is 0.985 and the specificity is 0.986.

In Bandundu Province, DR Congo, the prevalence of sleepingsickness was 0.18 % (18/10000). If the new rapid diagnostic test isused to test 1 million people in this province, how many truepositive and false positive cases can we expect?

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