ASSESSMENT OF THE ROSE-BENGAL PLATE TEST FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN BRUCELLOSIS IN HEALTH FACILITIES IN NAROK DISTRICT, KENYA

The Rose-Bengal plate test (RBPT) was performed on 488 patients with f lu-like symptoms from Narok district. There was poor agreement between RBPT results from four health facilities in Narok and from the centra l veterinary laboratory (CVL), Agreement was poorer for the three rura l dispensaries than for the District Hospital. On the other hand, for tests conducted at the CVL, there was good agreement between RBPT, ser um agglutination test (SAT) and complement fixation test (CFT) results , indicating that all these tests were probably performing well. Bette r training and quality control and the use of white rather than a clea r background surface for judging agglutination results are recommended to improve the performance of test results in Narok District health f acilities.