South Africa is one of 13 countries to pioneer new faster, cheaper tuberculosis TB tests as soon as April, when a trial comparing the new tests ability to pick up TB to the method we use right now starts.
The portable 155 R2 655 machine can run individual tests that cost just 3.60 R62 compared to 10 R171 for current tests and would allow clinics to diagnose TB on the spot within an hour.
But the portable machines cant detect drug-resistant TB, requiring a second lab sample if a patient tests positive and experts warn overstretched clinics may struggle to follow through.
If drug-resistant TB isnt picked up, patients are put on the wrong treatment medicine that doesnt cure them.
To see if reaching millions more people is worth the trade-off, two studies are looking at the technology to see how, and how soon, the test can be used in everyday care.
Intodays newsletter, Ida Jooste asks is a R60 TB test better or just cheaper?.Sign up for our newsletter today.
A patient arrives at a clinic with a cough that has lingered for weeks. The nurse suspects tuberculosis TB and asks for a sputum sample the phlegm people cough up from deep in the lungs for TB testing.
But the patient struggles to produce the few millilitres needed. Coughing up sputum isnt easy, especially not for children, older patients, people with weakened immune systems, or those with a dry cough. So the patients diagnosis stalls they have to undergo more complex tests, which often means going to a larger hospital further from where they live.
