Abstract
Infectious diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Rapid diagnosis of infections in LMICs presents many challenges, especially in rural areas where access to health care, including diagnostics, is poor. Microscopy is one of the most commonly used platforms to diagnose bacterial infections on clinical samples. Fluorescence microscopy has high sensitivity and specificity but to date is mostly performed within a laboratory setting due to the high-cost, low portability and highly specialist nature of equipment. Point-of-care diagnostics could offer a solution to the challenge of infection diagnosis in LMICs. In this paper we present frugal, easy to manufacture, doped polydimethylsiloxane filtering optical lenses that can be integrated into smartphone microscopes for immediate detection of fluorescently labelled bacteria. This provides a breakthrough technology platform for point-of-care diagnostics.
Highlights
Sepsis and other bacterial infections are a leading cause of mortality globally, with the greatest burden affecting low and middle income countries (LMICs) [1]
Previous work from Sung et al [25] demonstrated that the focal length, f, of clear PDMS lenses reduces with increasing temperature
We demonstrated here a potential application towards fluorescently labelled TB detection, which requires only the confirmation of the presence of the bacterial species, not benchtop microscope resolution of the microbe
Summary
Sepsis and other bacterial infections are a leading cause of mortality globally, with the greatest burden affecting low and middle income countries (LMICs) [1]. Diagnosing infections in low resource settings presents many challenges which include technological and infrastructural limitations alongside integration into care pathways [1,2,3]. In the absence of bacteriological confirmation many infections are treated empirically, which can add to the global issue of antimicrobial resistance [4]. Some diagnoses, such as the initial screening for suspected Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), are heavily reliant on benchtop ex vivo microscopy. In this case, a technician must prepare and examine each individual sample slide to confirm the presence of a microorganism in a sample. The END TB initiative highlights the need for POC diagnostics and is key to reducing mortality [9]
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