But the free flow of people has also brought about many challenges - not least the increasing ability for infectious diseases to spread1 rapidly and across borders.
Until recently, vector-borne diseases were restricted to specific geographies. But in the past few decades, rising global temperatures—a result of climate change—have allowed them to move beyond their original areas and spread quickly into other territories.2, 3
Notable examples include the expansion vector-borne diseasese.
In most countries where vector-borne infections are common, prevention methods2 are well-established.
This is crucial since some infections of this kind, particularly with viruses, can be asymptomatic. Unexpected and undetected infections can be fatal, carry significant risk for pregnancies, and can contaminate blood8 and transplant supply, exposing the healthcare system to further complications.
Approximately 700,000 deaths annually are estimated to be due to vector-borne infections and 80% of the world's population is at risk of one or more vector-borne diseases.2 Detection and treatment are clearly vital to prevent further spread across the globe.
An intricate and evolving healthcare infrastructure underpinned by quality, safety and accuracy is the first line of defense in prevention against a vector-borne outbreak.
Emergency preparedness should be considered as part of any responsible lab’s development plan. Ensuring scalability and flexibility to respond and adapt quickly is necessary to reduce the risks from emerging vector borne diseases.
This means that the right diagnostic tools are essential for epidemic intelligence, surveillance systems, and investigative approaches. Reliable and accurate outcomes of consistent quality enable confidence in results and solutions.
Increased testing efficiency is one way of ensuring the quality and purity of results. Despite the high levels of safety in how blood is collected, tested, processed, and transfused, blood and plasma products do remain vulnerable to diseases.9 Labs need confidence in clinical sensitivity and experience to minimize risk.
The best diagnostic tools and platforms are ones that are scalable and fit into an existing workflow. This reduces the need to purchase new systems, and means that lab workers can utilize existing expertise, thus minimizing workload. A broad assay menu spanning across various diseases including Zika, WNV, Chagas, Dengue and Chikungunya allows for greater outbreak coverage. Advanced automation reduces the possibility of human error, meaning assay results are standardized, clinically validated, and reliable – leading to higher confidence in results.
Roche’s global reach and experience can help labs respond and scale as needed. This is critical when addressing an outbreak, and can help reduce the rate of infection.
This support has been seen more recently when responding to emerging outbreaks and regional health challenges, such as Babesia, Zika and Chagas:
Blood-borne parasites such as Babesia species that cause babesiosis or Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagas disease provide regional healthcare challenges. Roche provides donor screening tests for both which are vital to prevent transmission through blood transfusion and organ transplantation in endemic areas (or coming from endemic areas).
Roche's IVD tests to detect these viruses and parasites aide in keeping the blood supply safe from these diseases.
As pathogens evolve and emerge, continuous innovation and development of tests is required. Future ready healthcare systems and labs can lead the way in innovative care, by leveraging automation to drive increased efficiency with minimal human interactions.
Roche is committed to ever improving testing and analytics, delivering state-of-the-art solutions to aid in the protection of the global blood supply from infectious diseases.
References
