Validation of rapid molecular testing for COVID-19 and integration with tuberculosis diagnostics
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a high burden of disease in Peru and other Latin American countries and affecting the capacity of health services to provide appropriate care to neglected diseases that persist outside the global spotlight. In the Americas, Peru is second only to Brazil in total cases of tuberculosis (TB). Considering that the symptoms of COVID-19 and TB are similar, integrating COVID-19 and TB testing would be an opportunity to improve the quality of patient care.
This study will take advantage of existing infrastructure for TB diagnosis in Peru — which provides cheap, user-friendly, and rapid, automated molecular TB testing — to validate its use for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in adults with suspected COVID-19 infection in Lima. It will assess the integration of the two diagnoses using a single respiratory sample at a secondary hospital in an area of high prevalence of TB outside of Lima. Strengthening COVID-19 diagnostic capacity and integrating COVID-19 with TB testing will save resources, improve quality of disease care, and minimize transmission time in the community.
This project was selected for funding through the COVID-19 May 2020 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity, coordinated by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in partnership with IDRC and several other health research funding agencies across Canada.
Project ID
109554
Project Status
Active
Duration
12 months
IDRC Officer
Adrijana Corluka
Total Funding
CA$ 421,479.00
Location
Peru
Programs
Global Health
Global Health
Foundations for Innovation
Institution Country
Canada
Project Leader
Madhukar Pai
Institution
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre/L' Institut de recherche du centre universitaire de santé McGill
Institution Website
Outputs
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Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 Article
Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 may help find those TB patients who are not accessing care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some molecular platforms with assays for both diseases are already commercially available; however, integrated testing approaches need to be systematically evaluated to ensure their appropriate implementation. Author(s): L. Maclean, Emily, Villa-Castillo, Luz, Ruhwald, Morten, Ugarte-Gil, Cesar, Pai, Madhukar Language: English |
Making cough count in tuberculosis care Article
Cough assessment is central to the clinical management of respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), but strategies to objectively and unobtrusively measure cough are lacking. Acoustic epidemiology is an emerging field that uses technology to detect cough sounds and analyze cough patterns to improve health outcomes among people with respiratory conditions linked to cough. This field is increasingly exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for more advanced applications, such as analyzing cough sounds as a biomarker for disease screening. While much of the data are preliminary, objective cough assessment could potentially transform disease control programs, including TB, and support individual patient management. Here, we present an overview of recent advances in this field and describe how cough assessment, if validated, could support public health programs at various stages of the TB care cascade. Author(s): Pai, Madhukar, Augusto Ugarte, César, Zimmer, Alexandra, MacLean, Emily Language: English |
| Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 Article
Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 may help find those TB patients who are not accessing care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some molecular platforms with assays for both diseases are already commercially available; however, integrated testing approaches need to be systematically evaluated to ensure their appropriate implementation. Author(s): MacLean, Emily L., Villa-Castillo, Luz, Ruhwald, Morten, Ugarte-Gil, Cesar, Pai, Madhukar Language: English |