Infectious diseases are currently, one of the greatest global challenges in medicine. Rapid and precise diagnosis and identification of pathogen is important for timely initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy. However, many patients with infectious diseases receive empirical treatment rather than appropriate pathogen-directed therapy. As a result antimicrobials have been overused and/or misused, which has ultimately led to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is broadly considered as the most significant public health threat facing the world today. Policy makers from all over the world have recognised the urgent need for rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostics that would not only identify pathogens but also provide antimicrobial susceptibility profiles in meaningful timeframe to initiate appropriate antimicrobial therapy and thereby, prevent AMR. Traditional culture-dependent diagnostic methods are still considered as gold standard methods. But they are very slow and generally require 18 to 48 hours with further 8 to 48 hours to perform antibiotic susceptibility test. Among culture-independent methods, PCR and ELISA are label-based, costly, laborious and require specialised equipment and trained personnel to operate them. Lateral flow assays (LFAs) that are low-cost, simple, rapid and paper-based portable detection platforms are very popular, as they can be applied at the POC. [Continues.
