APOPO's mission is to train rats to save human lives. ? ? Long term objective is to deploy a fast, cheap and reliable diagnostic tool for early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis in humans, based on the extremely developed olfactory capacity of trained rats.
The specific aim of this project is to test and validate the technology within the existing public health service in Tanzania. This includes: performance comparison between rats and standard sputum smear microscopic results (both ZN and FM, with cultures as a gold standard), and dissemination of the technology via a pilot project involving the co-operating health centers. A test group of twenty rats is trained on discrimination of M. tuberculosis prevalence in sputum samples collected from 7 health centers in urban centers in Tanzania. This project is part of a broader co-operation with the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program (NTLP) in Tanzania. ? ? The TB epidemic is growing fast out of control in African urban centers. With the current sputum smear microscopic tests, an active case-finding strategy is excluded. Sputum smear microscopy poses many challenges as a diagnostic tool: it is a slow and tedious process, with poor detection rates; it requires skilled lab technicians to perform the test. Moreover, HIV positive patients tend to produce negative smears. ? ? To get the TB/HIV epidemic under control, a simple, fast and reliable new diagnostic tool is urgently needed. APOPO provides a technology which is extremely fast (1 rat can detect 100 samples in 20 minutes), cheap, easy to operate and more accurate then SS microscopy. With this kind of fast and cheap diagnostic tool, an active case finding strategy could be possible, because it can handle big volumes of samples in a short time, producing almost real-time results. ? ? ?
