Wits University’s Faculty of Health Sciences Research Office held its 13th prestigious research lecture at the School of Public Health on molecular diagnostics as a means to rapidly identify infectious organisms and monitor patients’ response to treatment.
Molecular diagnostics is a technique using the genetic code (DNA/RNA) which improves diagnostic sensitivity and reduces diagnostic delays from days to hours.
Research has taken place over the past 20 years by the university’s Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology under the leadership of Professor Wendy Stevens, head of Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology in the School of Pathology and head of the National Priority Programme of the National Health Laboratory Service; and Professor Lesley Scott, head of Research and Development for the National Priority Programme.
The National Priority Programme was established by the National Health Laboratory Service several years ago to specifically address the minister of health and the National Department of Health’s strategic health priorities in terms of HIV and TB diagnostics.
The lecture titled, Unlocking access to Global HIV and TB care through Molecular Diagnostics, shed light on the simple, quick, ingenious molecular technologies the professors’ teams have tirelessly worked on to use molecular technologies to improve patient care in South Africa and which will also have a global impact.
“As a result of the use of an automated molecular diagnostic machine to diagnose TB called GeneXpert, for example, over 80 percent of individuals with multi-drug resistant TB, which is highly infectious, and 60 percent fatal, can immediately be identified,” said Prof. Stevens.
“The quick turnaround for results means that patients don’t go missing or infect others or die, as happened previously. In 2014, for example, approximately 9.6 million people developed TB and 1.5 million died globally.”
Molecular technologies are also being used in HIV Early Infant Diagnosis to determine whether the HIV virus DNA is present, and these technologies are also being used to test HIV viral loads to monitor patients on antiretroviral therapy.
“It is all about choosing the right technology and getting it to the right patient at the right time,” said Prof. Stevens, whose team has been using molecular technologies since the 1990s.
This approach is now recommended globally as the single best indicator as to whether a person is taking their HIV medication or not, or whether they have become resistant to their treatment.
“With molecular technologies we can now implement highly centralised, high throughput testing and decentralised, low throughput testing in clinics and hospitals all over the country,” added Prof. Scott.
“This will considerably impact on improving patient care with faster, more accurate and simpler ways to testing now and in the future, potentially for any kind of disease.”
