CAPE TOWN: Parked by the roadside next to a cemetery in the town of Gugulethu Cape Town, a hotspot for the hobby, a team of health workers set up a TB screening room next to their van.
Gladys Rara, 45, provides a sputum sample and the results are ready within 90 minutes.
The rapid test model, launched in South Africa, will involve 10 mobile clinics across southern Africa in deprived communities to diagnose TB patients. This is being done in an effort to prevent the unrest around Covid-19 causing an increase in deaths from the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
“It is very important that they come to us,” said Rara, adding that she was afraid of catching TB. “I think about the others around me and my kids at home … Where I live there are a lot of people with TB.”
The van is equipped with a battery-powered portable molecular screening device to detect TB DNA in sputum and researchers hope the new low-cost model could help prevent TB runaway infections by catching the disease in communities.
The study, called Xpert for Active Case Detection (XACT), will also screen for Covid-19 at the same time.
“It’s probably a game changer. To get the hang of it, XACT and active case detection turn off the tap instead of just mopping the floor,” the professor said. Keertan Dheda, principal investigator and head of the pulmonology department at cape city university.
TB kills around 60,000 people a year in South Africa. Health experts fear that the focus on Covid-19 could divert attention and resources from the disease, which will affect the poorest countries the most.
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a global increase of up to 400,000 TB deaths as Covid-19 led to a decline in testing and diagnosis.
South Africa saw a 48% drop in diagnostic test volume between February 3 and May 3 last year, the national institute for infectious diseases said.
Loops of mobility, closure of clinics and lack of money to get to open clinics as people lost their income in locking down all contributed.
The 200-year ($ 13.31 million) three-year study, co-funded by the EU, Britain and U.S. national health institutions, will target a total of 75,000 people, including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
“What we are doing now is monitoring the diagnosis quickly, treating it and visibly helping to reduce the burden of disease, mortality, and the spread of the disease,” the council said. doctor Shameem Jaumdally, project director.
Gladys Rara, 45, provides a sputum sample and the results are ready within 90 minutes.
The rapid test model, launched in South Africa, will involve 10 mobile clinics across southern Africa in deprived communities to diagnose TB patients. This is being done in an effort to prevent the unrest around Covid-19 causing an increase in deaths from the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
“It is very important that they come to us,” said Rara, adding that she was afraid of catching TB. “I think about the others around me and my kids at home … Where I live there are a lot of people with TB.”
The van is equipped with a battery-powered portable molecular screening device to detect TB DNA in sputum and researchers hope the new low-cost model could help prevent TB runaway infections by catching the disease in communities.
The study, called Xpert for Active Case Detection (XACT), will also screen for Covid-19 at the same time.
“It’s probably a game changer. To get the hang of it, XACT and active case detection turn off the tap instead of just mopping the floor,” the professor said. Keertan Dheda, principal investigator and head of the pulmonology department at cape city university.
TB kills around 60,000 people a year in South Africa. Health experts fear that the focus on Covid-19 could divert attention and resources from the disease, which will affect the poorest countries the most.
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a global increase of up to 400,000 TB deaths as Covid-19 led to a decline in testing and diagnosis.
South Africa saw a 48% drop in diagnostic test volume between February 3 and May 3 last year, the national institute for infectious diseases said.
Loops of mobility, closure of clinics and lack of money to get to open clinics as people lost their income in locking down all contributed.
The 200-year ($ 13.31 million) three-year study, co-funded by the EU, Britain and U.S. national health institutions, will target a total of 75,000 people, including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
“What we are doing now is monitoring the diagnosis quickly, treating it and visibly helping to reduce the burden of disease, mortality, and the spread of the disease,” the council said. doctor Shameem Jaumdally, project director.