Fig 1.
Overview of the EQA programme of the LAMP4Yaws project.
CCP = Critical Control Point; CCP1 = DNA extraction control, CCP2 = Validity of molecular analysis at reference laboratory level for qPCR and district-level laboratory for LAMP, CCP3 = Data management and analysis, EQA = External quality assessment, SOP = Standard operating procedure. Created in BioRender. Knauf, S. (2026) http://BioRender.com/d6ya4hv.
Table 1.
Overview of the proficiency test item panel consisting of seven swabs.
Fig 2.
A) qPCR results from the storage experiment for TP polA and B) HD 16SrRNA.
CCP1 = DNA extraction control, CCP2 = Validity of molecular analysis at reference laboratory level for qPCR and district-level laboratory for LAMP, CCP3 = Data management and analysis, EQA = External quality assessment, SOP = Standard operating procedure, CCP = Critical Control Point. Figure created in GraphPad Prism v9.5.1. Datasets are available under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17398671.
Fig 3.
Overview of the qPCR test results of RNAseP from all three PT rounds.
Blinded panel results were reassorted to the correct order. Swabs were tested in triplicates. One outlier was excluded in the triplicate of PT2 Sw6 laboratory b. FLI = Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (provider), a = reference laboratory Côte d’Ivoire, b = reference laboratory Cameroon; RNAseP = Ribonuclease P, Sw = swab, PT = proficiency test. Figure created in GraphPad Prism v9.5.1. Datasets are available under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17398671.
Fig 4.
Overview of the qPCR test results of TP polA and HD 16SrRNA gene from all three PT rounds.
Blinded panel results were reassorted to the correct order. Swabs were tested in triplicates. FLI = Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (provider), a = reference laboratory Côte d’Ivoire, b = reference laboratory Cameroon; TP = Treponema pallidum; polA = polymerase A, HD = Haemophilus ducreyi, 16SrRNA = 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid; Sw = swab; PT = proficiency test. Figure created in GraphPad Prism v9.5.1. Datasets are available under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17398671.
Table 2.
LAMP test results for TP polA gene and HD 16SrRNA gene in all three PT rounds. Blinded panel results were reassorted to the correct order. Results are displayed as correctly identified test results per three replicates. Test results with false positive or false negative outcome are highlighted in bold. LSHTM = The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; district laboratory Côte d’Ivoire, Yamoussoukro; district laboratory Cameroon, Dimako; Sw = swab; LAMP = Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification; TP = Treponema pallidum; polA = polymerase A; HD = Haemophilus ducreyi; 16SrRNA = 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid; PT = proficiency test.