Professor Alex Richter MBChB, MRCP, FRCPath, MD
Director of the Clinical Immunology Services, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Immunology, University of Birmingham
Advances in point-of-care diagnostics can help people in low and middle-income countries get access to treatment sooner, ultimately facilitating global equity and health security.
The challenge of effective diagnostics in the Global South
In the battle against global disease, the field of diagnostics can be overlooked. That’s frustrating admits Professor Alex Richter, MD, Director of the Clinical Immunology Services, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Immunology, University of Birmingham. “If better tools can diagnose patients more quickly, their access to treatment can be accelerated,” she says. “That massively affects outcomes.”
Effective diagnostics are a particular challenge in the world’s poorest countries. In the Global North, patient blood samples will go to a laboratory for analysis. In countries that lack clinical infrastructure, that type of test can be so logistically complex and expensive that it’s impossible to implement “Many diagnostic tools were developed for Global North healthcare systems,” explains Professor Richter. “What’s needed are cheaper and more accessible diagnostic tools for patients in the Global South.”
If better tools can diagnose
patients more quickly, their access
to treatment can be accelerated.
Helping vaccines to be delivered more effectively
Researchers from the university’s Clinical Immunology Services — as part of several projects working in partnership with in-country experts — are currently developing a range of low-cost tests for infectious and non-communicable diseases. These are tailored to populations in low and middle-income countries, delivered on-the-spot. The tests remove the need for centralised specialist laboratories and include a saliva test for tetanus and a finger-prick test for mpox. Further, tests like these support vaccination programmes. “And once mpox vaccines are rolled out, the test will allow clinicians to quickly assess their effectiveness,” notes Professor Richter. This is one example of the impactful health research carried out at the university, in partnership with researchers and doctors in the Global South.
The fact is that diagnostic innovations in the Global South benefit everyone because they help stop the spread of infectious diseases. “Take measles,” says Professor Richter. “This can quickly spread because of international travel and how infectious measles is, with deaths in the US and outbreak in the UK this year, we need to make sure that as many people as possible have the measles vaccine.” To that end, a diagnostic measles antibody test developed by Professor Richter and her team will shortly be trialed in Rwanda, allowing the MMR vaccine to be delivered in a more targeted and effective way.
“We hope that within three to five years we’ll have a pipeline of point-of-care diagnostics to help with vaccine forecasting and deployment,” she says. “We can then apply our learnings to improve, facilitate and accelerate diagnostics in the Global North. Better diagnostics isn’t ‘a nice to have’ for people in low and middle income countries, it’s mission critical for global healthcare equity and security.”
