A new diagnostic test developed from research carried out at the University of Cambridge and the University of Dundee has been launched with the aim of helping eliminate the disease known as African sleeping sickness.
Sleeping sickness, or Human African Trypanosomiasis, is caused by parasites transmitted by tsetse flies in sub-Saharan Africa and has a devastating impact, causing thousands of deaths each year. After sustained control efforts to reduce the number of new cases, the number of reported cases dropped below 10,000 for the first time in 50 years in 2009, and in 2015 there were 2,804 cases recorded, though the estimated number of actual cases is thought to be closer to 20,000.
The international not-for-profit organisation FIND and the diagnostics company Alere have today launched their second-generation rapid diagnostic test for sleeping sickness. This second-generation test is easier and safer to produce, using recombinant protein technology to produce the two diagnostic antigens, one of which is completely new.
The new test, SD BIOLINE HAT 2.0, costs US $0.50 each and requires no specialist equipment to diagnose sleeping sickness from a pin-prick of blood, providing the same level of accuracy but in a more robust production format.
The test has been developed from research performed in the laboratories of Professor Mark Carrington at Cambridge and Professor Mike Ferguson at Dundee, who collaborated to identify, produce and initially validate the trypanosome proteins that form the basis of the tests. Device prototyping was carried out at BBI Solutions in the Dundee Technology Park.
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