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Tuberculosis diagnosis has increasingly moved towards rapid molecular testing. The next opportunity may be to use that diagnostic infrastructure more efficiently not only to identify TB, but also to screen for infections and health conditions that can affect TB risk, treatment and outcomes | Image used for representational purpose only
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an information note on multi-disease testing devices in integrated laboratory networks, saying such platforms could improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase patient access by allowing disease-specific tests for TB, HIV and viral hepatitis on a common platform. WHO has subsequently continued to support diagnostic integration.
In September 2025, WHO announced the development of its first guideline specifically on multiplex testing, describing it as the use of one sample and a single assay or platform to detect multiple infections simultaneously. The proposed guidance covers HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections and is intended to establish principles for integrated testing.
But an important distinction here is, a common diagnostic platform is not the same as a common patient sample.
Several technologies can detect multiple pathogens from a single specimen. Multiplex real-time PCR can detect several genetic targets in one reaction, while next-generation sequencing platforms such as Illumina and Oxford Nanopore can analyse genetic material in a specimen and potentially identify a broad range of organisms.