Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) are a set of infectious diseases that affect more than one billion people worldwide mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. NTDs cause significant illness, disability, pain, and suffering which is especially hard on women and children. The effects of NTDs on health and development keep the most vulnerable communities trapped in a cycle of illness and poverty.
Field diagnostic testing tools play a crucial role in the surveillance process since today many current diagnostic tests require people to travel to a clinic which is often miles away from their rural community.
Over the next several years, PATH www.path.org, an international nonprofit organization will use their expertise, innovation, and work with global partnerships to speed the development of a suite of diagnostic tools to help eliminate NTDs.
“The lack of sensitive, effective, and field-ready diagnostic tests for NTDs is a critical gap in the global health community’s ability to direct control and track progress in the fight against NTDs,” said Tala de los Santos, Group Leader of Diagnostics at PATH.
PATH just announced a new test called “SD BIOLINE Onchocerciasis lgG4” a rapid test manufactured and distributed by Standard Diagnostics Inc. www.standardia.com. The easy to use test is able to determine if people have onchocerciasis, a leading cause of preventable blindness in Africa caused by a parasitic worm transmitted to humans through the bite of the blackfly.
Today, when a person needs to be tested for Onchocerciasis, it can be a painful procedure as a small portion of skin has to be removed for examination under a microscope. When faced with this procedure, some communities avoid participating in surveillance testing altogether.
The Onchocerciasis lgG4 rapid test supports, fast, effective, and community-wide testing and is able to identify areas where the disease is still active to guide the allocation of limited resources to prevent the disease from reemerging. The river blindness rapid test requires just a small drop of blood taken with a simple finger prick and by detecting unique antibodies to the parasite, it quickly identifies previous exposure.
The rapid test is the result of a partnership between PATH, the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Standard Diagnostics, Inc., and the broader onchocerciasis community with funding also provided by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The development of the new rapid test is a first step with the product expected be launched by Standard Diagnostics by the end of 2014.
PATH is actively seeking collaborators to help with introducing the rapid test. For more information on the river blindness rapid test to discuss partnering with PATH, contact dxinfo@path.org or go to http://sites.path.org/dx/ntd/oncho.