Scientists in Nigeria have developed a cheaper and faster COVID-19 test kit that will enable testing to be ramped up in a place which has faced kit shortages and chronic under-testing of a huge population, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) has said.
The NIMR says that the new test is cheaper than other PCR tests – the most common type of test – and can give results in less than 40 minutes.
“We saw the need for more testing outfits, especially one that can give results in a short time, because hospitals were refusing to treat patients without COVID-19 results,” Babatunde Salako, the director of the NIMR, told CNN.
“The machine we use is not the common PCR one. We bought the machine and adapted the kit that we developed to work with this machine. It is meant for diagnosis of other pathogens,” Salako said.
He added that the detection rate of the NIMR test kit is “a bit lower than the PCR, but for the point of care, we believe it is good enough for now”.
Testing challenges
Nigeria currently imports polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits from China and has faced challenges in getting enough kits to test most of its population of 200 million.
“We thought this one was very important, as it will diversify the way testing is done. With this one, all the people in villages and remote areas can be tested by moving the machine to those villages,” said Salako, who has led the agency since 2016.
So far, Nigeria has recorded more than 59,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,000 deaths as of 2 October, according to figures from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Health officials also report a declining number of cases, with in-country treatment facilities, known as isolation centres, being closed.
Nigeria has Africa’s largest population and has tested only about 500,000 people, according to figures from local health authorities.
The PCR test is the most widespread and accurate diagnostic test for determining whether an individual is infected with the novel coronavirus disease. However, the tests require specialised supplies, expensive equipment and the expertise of trained lab technicians. This has led to shortages and a testing gap globally.
Although testing in Nigeria is free in state-owned laboratories, there are few such facilities and these are only in major cities. Sometimes, health officials have to transfer samples to other countries to confirm results because of a shortage of kits.
Acquiring knowledge
“It has always been my concern and passion to see that Nigeria doesn’t have to take samples outside to diagnose,” Salako says. “We have scientists who are capable of this if they have the necessary support.
“That was what led to a visit to Senegal and China, We had collaboration to train our people in pathogen detection, even before COVID-19 started. We went in August and September 2019 to train our scientists.”
Salako said the test kits will be mass-produced once validated by the regulatory authorities – the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria.
“We do not expect the validation to take so long. The only limitation is that we have to produce more samples of these kits and acquire some new machines that are key to our work.
“Once that is done, we can mass-produce with government support and serve markets in all of Africa.”
In a separate announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO), working with several regional partners and donor agencies, said it had concluded plans to supply 120 million “affordable” and high-quality COVID-19 rapid tests to low- and middle-income countries, including countries in Africa.
The antigen rapid diagnostic tests, the agency said, would sell below US$5.
Nigeria is not the first country to produce testing kits on the continent. In March, Senegal’s scientists worked with a UK-based laboratory to create a diagnostic test for the coronavirus that can produce test results within ten minutes.
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