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The antibody response to the 38kDa, 16kDa and Lipoarabinomannnan (LAM) antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was evaluated using three different ELISAs based on these antigens.The study group included tuberculosis patients (n=52), patients with HIV and TB co-infection (n=10), other chest symptomatics (n=5), HIV infected individuals (n=10), leprosy cases (n=7) and healthy controls (n=75). The results indicate that the 38kDa and LAM based ELISA for IgM/IgG has a low specificity (ranging from 69-85%) and sensitivity (ranging from 55-78%). When three ELISAs are carried out on a single patient the probability of detection of tuberculosis was significantly increased to 95.2% indicating that a single ELISA test is of low sensitivity and that a combination of ELISA's may be needed to be of any value as a diagnostic test for tuberculosis. Additionally, a western blot assay of the serum antibody response to protein fraction of M.tuberculosis was analysed in 15 tuberculosis patients and five healthy controls. A multiple antibody response to various M. tuberculosis proteins was observed which varied from patient to patient as compared to controls who showed a single 38-39 kDa protein band positivity. These findings suggest that a westem blot assay which determines the antibody response to a set of antigenic components of M.tubercu/osis could be a better serological test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in our population. KEY WORDSTuberculosis, Serodiagnosis, ELISA, Western blot, 38kDa and 16kDa M.tb protein, Lipoarabinomannan.

Background: This study was undertaken to analyse the various diseases reported in a teritary care hospital. To find out the most common disease notified. Methods: This is hospital record based retrospective study. The data was collected from notifiable disease register maintained in the Department of Microbiology and also from medical records section of this hospital from August 2013 to December 2016. Results: The total number of cases reported was 1613. Of the 22 diseases listed by the government only seven were more common. Tuberculosis ranks the top followed by HIV-AIDS, malaria, dengue respectively. The disease group commonly affected is 13-59 years (61.5%) with male (63.5%) predominance. Conclusions: To prevent the spread of epidemic, the health care personnel must be adequately trained to identify the disease and notify the higher authorities.

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