A quarter of a million children die of tuberculosis (TB) each year worldwide. Early diagnosis would help save lives.
Human Health
“As a blood test, Actiphage is particularly suitable for children and patients unable to produce sputum," says Dr Pranabashis Haldar, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Leicester’s Hospitals.
The potential for Actiphage to be used as a mainstream diagnostic for human tuberculosis (TB) has been investigated in a study across the University Hospitals of Leicester (Leicester’s Hospitals) with promising results.
Traditional tests rely on sputum to detect the infection but almost half of all people with pulmonary TB are unable to produce sputum, particularly in early disease.
It also difficult to culture the mycobacteria for plate detection.
Actiphage provides a novel approach: it is able to detect the presence of live mycobacteria in a sample of blood.
It uses a bacteriophage – a virus specific to the mycobacteria that causes TB. The bacteriophage is able to penetrate the tough membrane of the bacteria and release DNA from live cells, which can then be identified.
The results from initial trials were very promising.
Results from a further study were presented at the 32nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (2022) more information
This progressed to a clinical trial with the results published in Lancet Microbe.
In 2023, 1.25 million died from tuberculosis (TB) (WHO data). Worldwide, TB has probably returned to being the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, following three years in which it was replaced by coronavirus disease (COVID-19). TB is present in all countries and age groups. TB is curable and preventable.
Children are often overlooked by health providers as the disease is particularly difficult to detect using current diagnostics.
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