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Another costly consequence of inaccurate testing comes in the form of false positives , which , with some methodologies , can be as high as 20 percent . “ False positive results , even at a level of five percent can lead to unnecessary inconvenience and expensive re-sampling of consumer taps and other points in the network thus creating an air of uncertainty ,” Professor Fricker added .
Colin Fricker
PhD FRSPH FSB
Colin Fricker is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at Queen ’ s University , Kingston , Ontario and has a long and distinguished career involved in water microbiology . He has published more than seventy peer reviewed papers , edited five books and presented over 200 papers at international conferences . He is also consultant to water utilities as far away as New Zealand , where he is on call to troubleshoot and give advice at a moment ’ s notice .
Ensuring reliability Sensitivity and specificity are also important considerations when screening for microbiological contamination . Greater sensitivity leads to faster detection and facilitates a more timely response by water utility operators .
High specificity eliminates the need to carry out time consuming , labour intensive
Early detection is vital because the findings can be indicators of contamination by more serious pathogens
110 December 2014