Starting date: July 2021>Dec 2024
Lifetime: 42 months
Status project: Starts on July 1st
2021
Program in support: 
CEA-Leti's contact:
Project coordinator:
ITM (Institute of
Tropical Medecine Antwerp)
Partners:- CEA-Leti
- Reactivosparadiagnostico
- Gent University
- Brussels University
- Yalgado Ouédraogo
Hospital University
- Benin Pneumo-Phtisiology Hospital
University
Investment: Unknown
Target market: Clinical
microbiology : blood culture ; identification
| Stake
Developing diagnostic
tools for bacterial infectious diseases in low-resource settings in sub-saharan
Africa
Objectives
- Bloodstream
infections (BSI) are an important cause of disease and death worldwide,
aggravated by increasing antimicrobial resistance which affects mainly
low-resource settings (LRS). Diagnosis of BSI is done by sampling blood in
blood culture bottles that are checked for growth in the microbiology
laboratory.
- In LRS, microbiology laboratories
are however scarce, and BSI cannot be diagnosed, resulting in overuse of
antibiotics which fuels AMR. For diagnosis of BSI, so-called manual blood
culture (equipment-free) systems are used in LRS, with daily visual inspection
for growth.
- Compared to automates
(that are being use in high income countries), manual blood culture systems are
less sensitive, and growth is slower; in addition, training and experience are
needed before laboratory staff is competent to detect growth when inspecting
the blood culture bottles.
- A simplified blood
culture system could enable expanded use of blood cultures in LRS and would
thus improve BSI treatment. Ongoing research at the Institute of Tropical
Medicine (ITM), in collaboration with Ghent University (Belgium) has resulted
in a novel, simple, cheap, open-access and robust blood culture system, the Bactinsight
blood culture system. This system consists of two modules.
- Firstly, a portable,
battery-operated measurement device (turbidimeter), which monitors and detects
bacterial growth in blood culture bottles based on the turbidity of the culture
medium caused by bacterial growth. Secondly, optimized blood culture bottles have
been developed. A second step in blood cultures is the identification of the
causing organism. Researchers at LETI (Grenoble, France) have developed a
lensfree microscope, which simplifies and expedites identification of the
causative bacteria organisms, improving patient’s diagnosis and more directed
antibiotic treatment. The lensfree microscope is an additional module for the
Bactinsight blood culture system.
- In the SIMBLE trial,
we will evaluate the Bactinsight blood culture system against reference systems
in two phases. During the optimization phase in Belgium, the performance of
Bactinsight turbidimeter + lensfree microscope will be tested in a reference
hospital laboratory. In parallel, an in vitro laboratory evaluation of the Bactinsight
blood culture system (turbidimeter + blood culture bottles + lensfree
microscope) will be done using spiked blood cultures.
- In the field-testing
phase, we will evaluate the ease-of-use, acceptability, adoptability and performance
of Bactinsight blood culture system in three hospitals in Benin and Burkina
Faso. The blood culture bottles used for this study will be manufactured in a
production facility in Benin, that will be installed at the start of the
project.
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