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Governments were trapped when Covid-19 struck, having overlooked the need to be able to assess new diseases because they were focused on drugs and vaccines for those they already knew.
There is now fear that the rush to supply the wealthiest countries pressing for more evidence may destabilize the fight against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, diseases that kill millions, mainly in low- and middle-income countries.
“Some companies plan to reduce or stop the production of tests for malaria, HIV and tuberculosis,” said Dr. Catharina Boehme, executive director of the Foundation for New Innovative Diagnostics (Find) and an adviser to the World Health Organization. “They are shifting their production to Covid-19 testing.”
Boehme said companies could get around 18 cents for a rapid malaria test and $ 10 for a Covid-19 test.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it was concerned “by any action that might reduce the availability of tests or treatment for HIV, tuberculosis or malaria.”
Its executive director, Peter Sands, said: “Given the risk that Covid-19 undermines our continued progress in fighting existing epidemics, this is not the time to do something that weakens our ability to diagnose and treat infected people. with HIV, TB and malaria in a timely and cost-effective way. Doing so would cost lives. “
Diagnosis has been the poor relationship with drugs and vaccines for years, as governments are now realizing its cost. The handful of countries that had specialized in diagnostics, including South Korea and Singapore, have had notable success in containing their epidemics. They were at a great advantage.
“South Korea and Singapore have a super strong diagnostic industry. Samsung, for example, has a diagnostic branch. Many of the technology companies that we know best about mobile phones, etc., have diagnostic branches, ”said Boehme. South Korea has factories that test for American and European companies.
In Singapore, Sars was a wake-up call. As a consequence, the government recognized an opportunity and invested in the diagnostic industry. Diagnoses are much more complicated than medications and vaccines. India, which produces cheap generic drugs for the world en masse, does not have a large production of diagnostics.
Germany, which has conducted more tests than any other country, started flying thanks to virologist Christian Drosten, who produced the first WHO-supported test for Covid-19. In the UK, Public Health England took longer. Typically, the US Centers for Disease Control. USA They are first out of the blocks with new tests, but it didn’t work. It could not detect enough cases and also produced false positives.
Germany had a large and excellent network of laboratories and the advantage of being decentralized, so it could respond to outbreaks with extensive testing conducted at the regional and local levels.
When the UK decided to increase testing, it had problems similar to those in developing countries. There were shortages of test kits and chemicals.
Smaller nations had less trouble getting what they needed. “The United Kingdom is one of the largest countries. If they hadn’t ordered large enough quantities early enough, they would have lost, “Boehme said.
One of the few large companies with a US approved Covid-19 test. USA And Europe is the BGI Group, a Chinese company that established tests in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic and then established laboratories and tests in 11 other cities, helping China to control the outbreak. He also participated in the production of Ebola tests for Africa.
It supplies tests for coronavirus to Sweden, and one of its companies, MGI, recently agreed to supply tests of 2 million to France. MGI has also offered to help the UK. “We want to help. Our manufacturing capacity is now 2 million tests per day and we are increasing to meet demand as we see it, “said Perla El Hage, MGI District Sales Manager for Northern and Western Europe.
Find is working with the WHO, UNICEF, the World Food Program, and the Gates and Clinton Foundations to obtain the Covid-19 tests for low-income countries. It has a storage facility in Dubai. BGI is one of the companies that has helped, but the scale of need is challenging.
“We need an estimated one billion tests in the next 12 months for low- and middle-income countries,” said Boehme. “Rapid diagnostic tests would be ideal in terms of ease of use and price, but at this time there is still a WHO recommendation against them because we lack evidence.”
Diagnostic tests identify an antigen in the virus, rather than the antibodies that the immune system can produce to fight it. Like antibody tests, they can be manual tests that do not require laboratory processing. “We need tests that are at least 90% sensitive. Ongoing assessment studies will show where we are. The sooner we can do these tests, the better, “said Boehme.
The diagnoses are finally having their time. There will be an international conference on pledges on Monday for donor countries to pledge vaccine funds and work on epidemic preparedness. This time, it will include diagnostics. The crucial role they play in controlling a global pandemic is recognized, and it is recognized that most countries have been very poorly prepared.
