Tropical Disease Testing No Longer Just Developing World Concern

Nov. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- NEW YORK – Point of care test makers should produce tests now for diseases affecting the developing world, before they reach developed nations.  The finding was published in Kalorama Information's recent report, Point of Care Diagnostics for Emerging Infectious Disease Threats (Dengue Fever, HIV, HPV, STDs, Chagas, TB, and Other IDs): Market Analysis and Technical Considerations.

According to World Health Organization statistics, globalization has made the world a smaller place in a very short time, with numerous reports of the spread of imported diseases such a lyme, chagas and malaria to regions where they were not usually present. Chagas Disease, Dengue, Malaria and TB are among the diseases the World Health Organization lists as ‘emerging’ for North America.  The same diseases are emerging in Western Europe (though chagas cases are extremely rare in that region.)  Global travel and trade, along with climate change, are expanding the habitats of the mosquitoes that carry many of the vector-borne infectious disease far and wide.

“Sitting comfortably in the easy chairs of N. America and Europe, there is a false complacency that most of the diseases featured in this report are a problem of developing countries,” said Shara Rosen, lead diagnostic analyst for Kalorama Information and the author of the report.  

The report predicts strong demand for rapid and efficient tests for countries in the developing world, financed from large foundations, but also suggests that healthcare providers in developed countries can also benefit.

" The situation in developed countries is probably less urgent for the tropical diseases," Rosen said.  "But it is equally important to have better rapid tests for HIV, tuberculosis and sexually transmissible diseases worldwide."
   
The full report details the companies that are making tests now and breaks down the testing market in terms of diseases.  

The report can be found at http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Point-Care-Diagnostics...