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There is a great need for improved diagnosis of curable bacterial sexually transmitted infections among women in developing countries. We found that wider access to new diagnostic tests has a greater overall impact on health outcomes than improvements in test sensitivity or specificity.

The development of an inexpensive, simple and widely accessible test for diagnosing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in infants could significantly reduce paediatric acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.