Health
Point-of-care Diagnosis of Trichomoniasis to Improve Linkage to Care and Combat Antimicrobial Resistance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to public health, particularly in regard to the control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Amongst STIs, trichomoniasis, caused by the parasite T. vaginalis, remains one of the most common. Infection with T. vaginalis is associated with serious health consequences, including adverse pregnancy outcomes and an increased risk of transmitting HIV to sexual partners. Trichomoniasis and its complications disproportionately affect communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
In the absence of appropriate diagnostics, resource-limited countries rely on syndromic management, which results in inappropriate treatment and contributes to the development of resistance to nitroimidazoles, the only effective drug class available. An essential first step in mitigating the impact of trichomoniasis is the deployment of effective diagnostic tests and timely linkage to appropriate care.
The Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FINDx) highlights low cost, fast time to results, and ease of use and specimen collection to ensure implementation of diagnostic testing at the point-of-care in resource-limited settings. Currently available molecular diagnostic platforms, whilst highly accurate, are prohibitively complex and expensive, making nationwide introduction in LMICs unfeasible.
Building upon existing technology from ETH Zurich, the project develops a novel low-cost point-of-care diagnostic test to detect both the presence of T. vaginalis and antimicrobial resistance genes. This test will combine a novel CRISPR-Cas12 based biosensing assay with highly-scalable microfluidic architectures and has been designed around the requirements of FINDx.
Focus Countries: Zambia
Contact: Dr. Daniel Richards
Partners: external page Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Zambia, Kanyama General Hospital
ETH4D Grant: ETH4D Research Challenges Grant
Iron and vaccine-preventable viral disease
Dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic requires a better understanding of health conditions that modulate the immune response to the virus as well as ensuring the efficacy of future vaccines.
While immunization programs have achieved high coverage on the African continent, vaccines often underperform compared to high-income countries. Why vaccines do not work as well in Africa remains uncertain. Malnutrition likely plays a role. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) weakens the adaptive immune response and thereby may impair response to vaccines. In Kenya, anemia affects 25% of women of reproductive age.
This experimental study with 112 participants aims to assess whether IDA in Kenyan women impairs their immune response to viral vaccines and whether iron treatment improves their response. Participants will be randomly assigned to a treatment (immediate iron-treatment) and control (delayed iron-treatment) group to measure differences in vaccine response to three anti-viral vaccines (influenza, yellow fever, and measles-rubella).
The findings will clarify the potential role of IDA, and its treatment, in maximizing the efficacy of future COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
Focus Country: Kenya
Contact: Dr. Nicole Stoffel
Partners: external page School of Public Health, Jomo Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Msambweni District Hospital
ETH4D Grant: ETH4D Research Challenges Grant