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URC/CHS Projects
Health & Population
Diagnostic Test Cost Analysis for the Developing World
Client: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria account for 5.6 million deaths each year, the great majority of which occur in the developing world. High treatment costs of HIV/AIDS and other diseases make correct diagnosis essential. Early and correct diagnosis of these diseases can produce a wide range of benefits, including prevention or delay of the spread of drug-resistant microbes. In addition, the ability to rule out malaria can lead to more opportune diagnosis and treatment of other causes of fever, such as meningitis or respiratory infections.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has recognized that improving access to accurate diagnostic tools is critical to stemming the spread of these diseases as well as that of sexually transmitted and other infectious diseases. The Foundation, in January 2007, awarded the Center for Human Services (CHS) a grant to research potential demand for seven diagnostics of diseases that cause high morbidity and mortality in the developing world. Under this grant URC-CHS is contributing to the Gates Foundation’s vision of accelerating access to existing vaccines, drugs, and other tools to fight diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries and to find new health technologies that are effective, affordable, and practical for use in poor countries.
URC/CHS Services
Conduct research in on seven diagnostic tools:
- a test for HIV diagnosis in young children (<18 months);
- a rapid home-based test of malaria in patients with fever;
- a test for active TB in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients;
- a test for syphilis in pregnant women;
- a test for gonorrhea and chlamydia in high-risk women;
- a test for bacterial acute lower respiratory illness (ALRI) among patients presenting with acute respiratory illness;
- a test for giardia, cryptosporidium, or E. coli in children.
The research is intended to:
- Estimate potential demand in the public, private-for-profit, and private non-profit health sectors, as well as among health care consumers.
- Examine the likely effects of factors such as price, sensitivity, specificity, and practicality on potential demand.
- Determine channels through which diagnostic tests are purchased in the study countries and make recommendations about how new diagnostics can most effectively be introduced.
Geographic Focus
Five primary countries:
Benin, India, Peru, Russia, and Tanzania
Four secondary countries:
Albania, Cambodia, Lesotho, and Nicaragua
For more information
Please contact Dr. Steven Harvey, CHS’ Principal Investigator, at sharvey@urc-chs.com.
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