Project in the field of Onchocerciasis diagnosis.

Objectives 1. Evaluate Onchocerciasis RDTs under development. 2. Collect, analyse and store blood samples from individuals in onchocerciasis endemic areas. Activities Onchocerciasis results in severe itching, blindness and poor socioeconomic development. It has been targeted for elimination by 2030 by the WHO. Current diagnostics for onchocerciasis, including the skin-snipping microscopy, Ov16 ELISA and Ov16 RDT, are limited in their sensitivities. Improved versions of the Ov16 RDT are in development and need to be evaluated to assess their diagnostic performance. Moving these tests along the development pipeline will greatly enhance the diagnostic needs for onchocerciasis and contribute to its elimination. We propose to advance the development of these tests, and evaluate them against current tools through: • Establishing a diagnostic biorepository for onchocerciasis. The availability of a repository for well characterized samples continues to be a challenge for the development and evaluation of new diagnostics for onchocerciasis • Coordination with existing product development partners to evaluate tools in development. This early coordination among partners and evaluation will help identify the best tool to move further in the development pipeline.

Keywords:INFECTIONS

Disciplines:Tropical medicine, Tropical medicine not elsewhere classified