A new scalable, rapid test for the diagnosis of meningitis is crucial and long overdue.
Under the auspices of the World Health Organization, experts gathered in Geneva in March 2018 to explore the scope, type, target user and timelines for making such product available. They identified key steps to make progress for three different types of diagnostic tests:
- 1.Rapid test in the African meningitis belt to identify the causative organism (meningococcal serogroup) at peripheral level,
- 2. Rapid test in epidemic and endemic settings (global level) to identify bacterial infection for individual case management at peripheral level
- 3. Rapid test in epidemic and endemic settings (global level) to identify multiple meningitis pathogens for individual case management at hospital level.
The expert gathering follows a global meeting at Wilton Park organised by Meningitis Research Foundation and WHO recently to build a pathway to a world free from meningitis and an expert panel session at last year's MRF scientific conference.
The WHO Developing a new generation RDTs for Meningitis meeting report