**3. Conclusions**

The ability to concurrently detect multiple pathogens infecting a host is crucial for accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases, identification of coinfections, and assessment of disease state for an effective patient management. PCR technology has been widely used to detect and quantify pathogenic microorganisms that cause various infectious diseases including some arboviruses, STIs, and bacterial infection. This methodology is revolutionizing the area of molecular diagnostics because of its high sensitivity of detection and specificity for the determination of infectious agents. In addition, there is a reduction in run time and cost over traditional cultivation methods, for example, to determine the amount of a particular pathogen in a clinical specimen. The main advantages of PCR are its higher sensitivity and specificity compared with other diagnostic methods such as serological assays and culture methods, as well as its rapidity, utility, and versatility in clinical laboratory.

Although the conventional PCR is the most widely used molecular technique, other methodologies have been developed including real-time PCR, multiplex PCR, LAMP-PCR, and digital PCR. The biochemical mechanisms of these techniques are based on enzyme-mediated processes, target, signal or probe amplification, and isothermal conditions.

Considering the clinical importance of these diseases, the number of infected individuals worldwide and the serious health consequences for population is extremely relevant to the precise, rapid, and sensitive diagnosis of these diseases in laboratories. Regardless, there is still the need for advances in basic science research and development of molecular technologies, which provide basis for the precise diagnostic and molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases as well as control measures, prevention, and design of vaccines and monitoring of infections face-toface the treatment applied in clinical practice.
