We have found that denaturation of template was a prerequisite step prior to amplification, unlike results found by Nagamine and co-workers [14] . This can be explained by the fact that we do not use a base pair destabiliser, such as betaine, in the reaction buffer. Since we are detecting down to near single copies of templates, our results suggest no benefit to the sensitivity of the assay by their inclusion. The consistent amplification within all dilutions showed that LAMP is an 'all or nothing' reaction, with little of the tailing off effect that is often observed in PCRs with diluting templates. This makes it easy to identify positive reactions. Together with specificity and the speed at which reactions can be performed, LAMP is an excellent method for diagnostics [8, 10, 15] .