Africa-Press – Gambia. A new research led by scientists at the MRC Unit The Gambia, together with colleagues at Imperial College London, the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro in Burkina Faso, Proton Dx Ltd, and the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems have developed and validated a low-cost, point-of-care diagnostic that can rapidly and accurately detect malaria infection from a simple finger-prick blood sample.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) global health research funding, the WelLcome Trust CAMO-Net programme, the Fleming Initiative, the Jameel Fund for Infectious Disease Research and Innovation, the Centre of Defence Pathology and hub med at the UK Ministry of Defence highlight significant global health implications. The field-deployable method offers a sensitive, scalable solution to support test-and-treat strategies for malaria elimination across Africa.
A low-cost, Point-of-Care (POC) malaria test means faster, cheaper, and more accurate diagnosis close to home. It seeks to reduce the burden of illness and increases survival, especially for children who are most at risk helping families get the right treatment without long hospital visits or high costs.
Professor Umberto D’Alessandro, MRCG Unit Director and PhD supervisory highlighted, “A large proportion of malaria-infected individuals cannot be identified by standard diagnostic tests; their identification requires complex laboratory procedures that can be performed only in well- equipped laboratories.”
“Dragonfly is a diagnostic test that can be performed in the most remote villages and thus allows the rapid identification of malaria infected individuals who could be treated. With Dragonfly, an intervention based on mass testing and treatment becomes possible and has the potential of decreasing malaria transmission,” he continued.
Associate Professor Annette Erhart, Malaria research coordinator at MRCG and PhD co-supervisor added: “This innovative test represents a potential breakthrough for malaria elimination as it allows for mass screening and treatment on a real-time basis with a tool combining the advantages of molecular and POC tests.”
It also has the potential to transform malaria surveillance, reduce misdiagnosis, guide smart use of medicines, and ultimately help governments and health systems better allocate resources to control and eventually eliminate malaria.
The study collected nearly 700 blood samples from The Gambia and Burkina Faso to examine the performance of Dragonfly compared to the usual malaria tests (PCR, expert microscopy, and rapid diagnostic tests). Dragonfly proved to be accurate: it matched PCR results with about 95%accuracy even with limited symptoms.
According to Dimbintsoa Rakotomalala Robinson, PhD student on the study “this study is not only about technological progress, but also about empowering young African researchers like me to contribute to the fight against malaria and its elimination.”
Asymptomatic malaria infections remain one of the greatest barriers to achieving elimination on the continent and detecting them is critical to interrupting transmission chains. By enabling effective test-and-treat strategies at the community level, this new diagnostic tool provides a scalable and effective solution to end malaria in our lifetime.
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