Investing in Diagnostics to Improve Treatment

Geneva 24 April 2012 — As the international community commemorates World Malaria Day this week, UNITAID is gearing up for its next round of agenda-setting investments in malaria: quality and innovative diagnostic technology.

Two new UNITAID projects aim to increase access to quality-assured “rapid diagnostic tests” (RDTs).  Portable and easy-to-use, RDTs detect antigens produced by the malaria parasite, allowing for results in under 25 minutes in resource-limited settings. 

The malaria parasite strikes fast and what seems like a child’s simple fever can quickly become fatal. Almost 90% of the 650,000 people who died from malaria in 2010 were children.  Early diagnosis, followed by appropriate treatment, is crucial in stemming deaths from malaria and reducing the risk of drug resistance.   Due to a lack of easy-to-access malaria tests, many children are misdiagnosed and given anti-malarials at the first sign of fever, when in fact the ailment may be due to another cause.  The result, treatment efficacy may diminish through drug resistance for children who contract malaria.    

Innovative technologies to test and monitor HIV/AIDS and improved malaria tests will soon be within reach of a number of countries via three new projects approved by the UNITAID Executive Board at its latest meeting.

UNITAID has committed US$ 28.7 million to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and US$ 20 million to the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) for two complementary projects on innovative HIV diagnostic tools. These revolutionary new technologies will allow for diagnosis of HIV in infants and monitoring of HIV infection in remote areas previously deprived of diagnostic services.