Seven months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in Kenya, its vaccine has not been developed and produced for global use, diagnostics has been the most important medical technology available to limit the spread of COVID-19.
World Health Organization has announced plans to make available 120 million affordable, quality COVID-19 rapid tests for low- and middle-income countries.
According to a WHO report, the affordable COVID-19 antigen rapid tests will be made available at Sh500 for six months funded by global partnerships, commitments from governments, private sectors and international organizations through the ACT-accelerator access to COVID-19 tools.
The tests provide results in 15 to 30 minutes rather than hours or days and are expected to expand testing capacity particularly in countries that do not have extensive laboratory facilities or adequate trained health workers to implement molecular Polymerase-chain reaction(PCR) tests.
“New tests are urgently needed to meet the huge unmet needs for testing worldwide,” WHO said in a statement.
The tests will be made available after a milestone agreement involving African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and global partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the Global Fund, Unitad and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The portable, reliable and easy to administer antigen tests developed by Abbott and SD Biosensor are expected to make testing possible in near person and decentralized healthcare settings.
The Global Fund has committed an initial USD50 million from its Covid-19 response Mechanism to enable countries to purchase at least 10million of the new rapid tests for low and middle-income economies the new tests at a guaranteed price.
“High-quality rapid tests show us where the virus is hiding, which is key to quickly tracing and isolating contacts and breaking the chains of transmission. The tests are a critical tool for governments as they look to reopen economies and ultimately save both lives and livelihoods,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO DirectorGeneral, said in a statement.
Unitaid and Africa CDC are expected to initiate a rollout of the tests in up to 20 African countries starting in October 2020. The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation has executed a deal for the tests to be produced using a volume guarantee which will compel manufactures to commit 20 per cent of their output available to poorer countries.
FIND and WHO will accelerate appropriate use by supporting implementation research that will optimize rapid diagnostic test use in multiple low and mediumincome economies in line with WHO guidelines which will include the provision of the catalytic volume of tests to understand how the rapid diagnostic testing technology will best fit into their health system.
A WHO guidance published in September 2020 highlights the value of the rapid diagnostic tests in areas where community transmission is widespread and where nucleic acid amplification-based diagnostic (NAAT) testing is either unavailable or where test results are significantly delayed.
