Social Technologies
Authors: Nicola Mountford, Assistant Professor, School of Business, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Maynooth University and Sean Doyle, Professor, Department of Biology, Maynooth University
Over 32,000 neonatal deaths occur per annum in Uganda, with sepsis accounting for 20% of this death rate – that’s 6,500 newborn babies who die of sepsis in just one country in the world. That’s not all, sepsis also accounts for almost a quarter of maternal deaths in Uganda. Our project, NEOSEPSIS, aims to reduce these numbers by introducing an easy-to-use, 15 minute lateral flow test to help to better diagnose sepsis in resource limited environments, such as Uganda.
The test detects Serum amyloid A, or SAA – a globally validated biomarker of sepsis. The lateral flow test used in this process is very similar to the type of antigen test that you might have used to help diagnose whether or not you had Covid-19. It is just as user-friendly, rapid, and equipment-free as one of those Covid antigen tests. This makes it particularly suited to environments where it might be difficult to take, store and transport samples.
Continue reading “Rapid Neonatal and Maternal Sepsis Detection in Resource Limited Environments”