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Project

Validation of rapid molecular testing for COVID-19 and integration with tuberculosis diagnostics
 

Peru
Project ID
109554
Total Funding
CAD 421,479.00
IDRC Officer
Adrijana Corluka
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
12 months

Programs and partnerships

Foundations for Innovation

Lead institution(s)

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a high burden of disease in Peru and other Latin American countries and affecting the capacity of health services to provide appropriate care to neglected diseases that persist outside the global spotlight.Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a high burden of disease in Peru and other Latin American countries and affecting the capacity of health services to provide appropriate care to neglected diseases that persist outside the global spotlight. In the Americas, Peru is second only to Brazil in total cases of tuberculosis (TB). Considering that the symptoms of COVID-19 and TB are similar, integrating COVID-19 and TB testing would be an opportunity to improve the quality of patient care.

This study will take advantage of existing infrastructure for TB diagnosis in Peru — which provides cheap, user-friendly, and rapid, automated molecular TB testing — to validate its use for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in adults with suspected COVID-19 infection in Lima. It will assess the integration of the two diagnoses using a single respiratory sample at a secondary hospital in an area of high prevalence of TB outside of Lima. Strengthening COVID-19 diagnostic capacity and integrating COVID-19 with TB testing will save resources, improve quality of disease care, and minimize transmission time in the community.

This project was selected for funding through the COVID-19 May 2020 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity, coordinated by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in partnership with IDRC and several other health research funding agencies across Canada.

Research outputs

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Report
Language:

English

Summary

COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB) are currently the top two infectious diseases by mortality. Universally, personnel and financial resources from existing disease control programs have been diverted to the COVID-19 response. For TB, this has resulted in a steep decline in case notifications, and, for the first time since 2015, annual mortality increased. Strategies to simultaneously address both diseases could help recover missing TB cases and ensure people suffering from either disease receive appropriate care. We have undertaken two initiatives towards integrating testing for COVID-19 and TB in Lima, Peru. First, we investigated rapid testing for COVID-19 and TB in one clinical encounter using a molecular multi-disease testing platform that is available through Peru. Second, we are evaluating the use of cough classification artificial intelligence models, with data collected using a smartphone. Clinical and qualitative aspects of the intervention are being assessed. The findings from our studies will likely be generalizable to other urban settings with high TB burdens.

Author(s)
Pai, Madhukar
Article
Language:

English

Summary

Integrated molecular testing could be an opportunity to detect and provide care for both tuberculosis and COVID-19. Many high tuberculosis burden countries, such as Peru, have existing GeneXpert systems for tuberculosis testing with GeneXpert Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra), and a GeneXpert SARS-CoV-2 assay, GeneXpert Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 (Xpert Xpress), is also available. We aimed to assess the feasibility of integrating tuberculosis and COVID-19 testing using one sputum specimen with Xpert Ultra and Xpert Xpress in Lima, Peru.

Author(s)
MacLean, Emily Lai-Ho
Article
Language:

English

Summary

Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 may help find those TB patients who are not accessing care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some molecular platforms with assays for both diseases are already commercially available; however, integrated testing approaches need to be systematically evaluated to ensure their appropriate implementation.

Author(s)
L. Maclean, Emily
Article
Language:

English

Summary

Cough assessment is central to the clinical management of respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), but strategies to objectively and unobtrusively measure cough are lacking. Acoustic epidemiology is an emerging field that uses technology to detect cough sounds and analyze cough patterns to improve health outcomes among people with respiratory conditions linked to cough. This field is increasingly exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for more advanced applications, such as analyzing cough sounds as a biomarker for disease screening. While much of the data are preliminary, objective cough assessment could potentially transform disease control programs, including TB, and support individual patient management. Here, we present an overview of recent advances in this field and describe how cough assessment, if validated, could support public health programs at various stages of the TB care cascade.

Author(s)
Pai, Madhukar
Article
Language:

English

Summary

Integrated testing for TB and COVID-19 may help find those TB patients who are not accessing care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some molecular platforms with assays for both diseases are already commercially available; however, integrated testing approaches need to be systematically evaluated to ensure their appropriate implementation.

Author(s)
MacLean, Emily L.
Villa-Castillo, Luz
Ruhwald, Morten
Ugarte-Gil, Cesar
Pai, Madhukar
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