Africa on the Forefront of Coronavirus Testing

 For the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak began, Africa may be poised to reshape rapid testing for the virus.  The Pasteur Institute, a biomedical research center based in Senegal's capital city of Dakar, says it is close to producing an affordable, handheld Covid-19 diagnostic test kit that can give results in a matter of minutes.

The institute is running a new venture called DiaTropix, which has been working in partnership with five research organizations to create the revolutionary test kit.  Amadou Sall, director of the Pasteur Institute and DiaTropix, said that the biomedical center hopes the kit will cost as little as $1 to purchase.  "This is a very simple technology, like a pregnancy test that you can use everywhere at the community level, which is important for Africa," he said.

The new rapid test kit does not require electricity or need laboratory analysis.  Instead, it consists of a simple test strip housed in a plastic unit and uses a small blood sample collected by pricking a finger, much like tools used to test insulin. The blood is tested for coronavirus-related antibodies, and the result is shown on the test strip.

The Covid-19 rapid test kits will first be available on the African continent through governments and health organizations like the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The initial focus for distribution will be on public health and then moving into self-testing.  The goal is to issue 10 to 15 million kits by February 2021.

This is not the first time the Pasteur Institute has been at the forefront of providing public health solutions in the face of a pandemic.  It has been manufacturing vaccines for about 80 years, and offered diagnostic and epidemiological surveillance during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2013 to 2016.

Amadou Sall, who is also the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in Senegal, believes the presence of the rapid Covid-19 test kits will help boost the economy.  "If you are facing a situation where people cannot work because they are sick ... it's very disruptive for the economy. And in this regard, investing in those initiatives (testing kits) to promote access is a way to keep the economy going," he said.