Reading for 11/11

Requirements for High Impact Diagnostics in the Developing World brings to attention the importance of developing accurate diagnostic tests to treat patients with infectious diseases. Prior to this reading, I often overlooked the importance of diagnostic tests, focusing mostly on the availability of treatments in reducing the number of preventable deaths due to infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. According to this article, millions of lives can be saved if patients could be correctly diagnosed. For instance, since it is more common for children to have viral acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) than bacterial ALRI, infants who do not need and will not benefit from antibiotics are still receiving them, reducing the amount of resources available for those who actually need it when resources are already limited. The article outlines the characteristics required for the most helpful diagnostic tests, specifically those designed for developing countries with limited laboratory infrastructure and equipment since those countries are usually the ones with the highest number of deaths due to incorrectly diagnosed, or not diagnosed at all, infectious diseases. According to their research, the authors have concluded that in order for a test to be successful, it has to be feasible for a setting with limited laboratory resources, the most common setting for a developing country. This means that the test has to be simple and easily done with minimal training, require minimal measurement since measuring devices are limited in number, test something such as blood and not sputum that is easily obtainable, and require a relatively short period of time to complete. I felt that most of the characteristics of a desirable diagnostic test outlined by the article were common knowledge, such as that tests have to be simple and done with minimal training. Since the article does not suggest different types of tests or explain what still needs to be done for testing each of the 6 most common infectious diseases that were discussed, it does not contribute very much other than bring to attention that better diagnostic tests for those infectious diseases need to be found.