Researchers from the University of Birmingham’s Clinical Immunology Services have developed a simple saliva test to identify tetanus immunity status in the Global South.
In a programme of work backed by £1.1 million of Medical Research Council funding, researchers have worked with industry partner, Medtechtomarket, to create a low-cost, lateral flow point-of-care test that enables immunity to be tested easily, quickly and without taking blood.
The new test has been developed with a focus on sustainability, using around 35% less total plastic compared with COVID-19 lateral flow tests used. With no requirement to be sent away to a laboratory, the test gives a result in around 30 minutes.
The test will be evaluated in Rwanda, working with the Center for Family Health Research and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre in Kigali. Over the next 12 months, researchers will assess how well the test works in real-life and find out how acceptable the test is among the local community and healthcare workers.
Dr Jennifer Heaney, Principal Investigator from the School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology at the University of Birmingham, said: “Whilst we are testing specifically for tetanus immunity, since the tetanus vaccine is regularly combined with other disease targets in the same injection, if an individual is unprotected against tetanus this indicates that they are also likely to be missing protection against other serious vaccine-preventable diseases. After this study, we could use the test to do further sero-epidemiological work in other parts of Rwanda or elsewhere in the world to help link immunisation activities to immunity data.”
Life-saving childhood vaccinations fail to reach around 25 million children worldwide, while many people across the world missed out on essential vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of the study will inform Rwanda’s vaccine effectiveness monitoring and should steer policy for prioritising vaccine deployment, by highlighting age and gender cohorts and localities where immunity is lacking.
Participants will be recruited through partnerships with local schools, antenatal appointments with pregnant women and local advertising.
Despite a general decline in global tetanus, the disease continues to cause unnecessary deaths in some low-middle income countries. In recent years, global coverage of diphtheria-tetanus toxoid-pertussis vaccine has hit a 15-year low, increasing those at risk of serious disease.
