Tuberculosis diagnostic technology: an African solution ... think rats
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Date
2017-03-31
Authors
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Volume Title
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AOSIS
Abstract
Introduction
Tuberculosis has now gained ranking alongside HIV as one of the two leading causes of death
from infectious diseases worldwide. 1 In 2014, it was estimated that 1.5 million people died as a
result of and 9.6 million fell ill with tuberculosis. 1 Despite these alarming figures, efforts to reduce
the annual tuberculosis incidence rate over the last decade have resulted in only a meagre 1.5%
decline. 1
In order to reach the ambitious targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 of reducing
tuberculosis deaths by 90%, reducing the tuberculosis incidence rate by 90%, and ensuring that
no tuberculosis-affected family is facing catastrophic costs due to tuberculosis, a paradigm shift
is urgently needed. 1 Recently, a series of papers was published in The Lancet on how to eliminate
tuberculosis, suggesting repacking current interventions into a comprehensive control strategy. 2
The World Health Organization End TB Strategy supports this and also emphasises the need for
better adoption and rapid uptake of new tools to diagnose tuberculosis earlier, the systematic
screening of high-risk populations, and the effective and rapid roll-out of these strategies in
highly-affected countries. 3 However, the practicality of achieving these components remains
challenging because of the lack of a rapid, simple, accurate and affordable point-of-care
diagnostic and screening algorithm that can be scaled-up to screen large numbers of individuals.
Nevertheless, achievement of these goals is necessary and must catalyse the development of
new interventions in Africa, for Africa, the continent with the highest tuberculosis mortality and
morbidity rates.
Description
African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
Keywords
Tuberculosis diagnostic technology, Tuberculosis, African diseases solution, Rats