Seminar #33
The origin of Fever and Anemia in Developing Countries
Sysmex
No invitations necessary; open to all conference registrants
Tuesday 6 December
19:00 – 20:30
CTICC room location: 2.4
TARGET AUDIENCE:
Clinicians, laboratory scientists, MOH, NGOs and funders supporting malaria and acute febrile illness management and control programmes.
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:
Malaria continues to pose a major public health challenge. As of 2015, there were more than 200 million malaria cases and more than 400,000 malaria deaths worldwide. More than 3 billion people are still at risk of infection in 97 countries and territories. However, in the last few years, extensive efforts to control malaria have remarkably resulted in a significant reduction in the mortality and incidence rates. In fact, non-malarial febrile illnesses cause more deaths than malaria even in malaria-endemic countries and in the absence of accurate or available diagnostics, there is still widespread presumptive treatment of every fever with antimalarials. Not only does this contribute to the generation of artemisinin resistance but also a significant number of preventable deaths due delayed or missed diagnosis of bacterial sepsis or acute viral illnesses.
As the incidence of malaria continues to decline, the need to differentiate malaria from non-malarial causes of fever becomes increasingly more urgent. Whilst the ultimate prize would be the definitive identification of the causative pathogen, in reality this is not feasible in low-income countries where the burden of malaria and other infectious febrile diseases remains heavily concentrated.
At this seminar we will share with you the developmental journey of our new innovative diagnostic tools, born from many decades of experience in routine blood cell analysis, to differentiate between viral, bacterial and parasitic causes of infection, with confirmation in cases of malaria. Using this technology acute cases of malaria will be rapidly identified , confirmed and treated. Non-malarial illness will be identified as either being suspected to be of bacterial or viral origin which in turn will support the intelligent use or withholding of antibiotics and direct further diagnostic investigation in selective cases. Furthermore, the technology also provides prognostic information about the severity of disease, irrespective of cause. The clinical utility of this diagnostic concept will be illustrated with the following presentations:
1) “A functional hematology concept to manage febrile disease – first multi-center results of the Sysmex IMS (infection management system) are convincing in infectious disease diagnostics and management.”
2) “Novel flow cytometric approach to malaria diagnostics – multi-center study with the Sysmex XN-30 system yields promising results to effectively support “Roll Back Malaria” targets.”
The seminar will be structured in such a way to encourage robust discussion about how technological innovations can straddle the laboratory-clinical divide to improve patient outcomes most notably in resource limited settings.
SESSION LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Information about new technologies for the diagnostic differentiation of malaria from non-malarial acute febrile illnesses
SESSION SPEAKERS:
Prof Andreas Huber, Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Kantonsspital Aarau
Professor Huber is a professor of Internal Medicine and Haematology Oncology at the University of Berne and Head of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Kantonspital, Aarau, Switzerland. He has held visiting professorships in Medicine at both Emory University, Michigan and the First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, China. He has an illustrious research career which has spanned several decades and well over 500 peer reviewed publications, books and conference presentations . He has served as a consultant to various IVD companies, including Sysmex and assisted in the development of haematological diagnostic applications over the years. He will be the chairperson of this Sysmex Symposium.
Dr Kubendran Naidoo, National Helath Laboratory Service
PDr Naidoo is a joint staff National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) and University of the Witswatersrand (Wits) scientist and lecturer. After obtaining his BSc (Hons) degree he joined the Red Cell Membrane Unit of the NHLS in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology at the University of the Witwatersrand. There I performed routine diagnosis and research on disorders of the red cell membrane, including hereditary spherocytosis, elliptocytosis and pyropoikilocytosis. The head of the unit, Professor Theresa L. Coetzer, research interest included malaria and she established the Plasmodium Molecular Research unit which forms part of Wits Research Institute for Malaria (WRIM), to understand the molecular biology of the P. falciparum malaria parasite. This has been his primary research interest and in 2004. He registered for a Masters of Science (MSc) degree to gain insights into the phospholipid metabolism of blood-stage P. falciparum parasite metabolism. This was upgraded to a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2007 and in 2012, he graduated with his PhD entitled: The role of Plasmodium falciparum glycerol kinase.
Prof Andre van de Ven
André van de Ven is Professor International Health at the Radboud University, Nijmegen the Netherlands. He is educated as a medical doctor, received a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and specialized in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He currently leads the Infectious Disease Department at the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen the Netherlands and the Nijmegen Institute for International Health. His research interest is Global Infectious Diseases where he combines basic research in the Netherlands with more translational research in low-and middle-income countries. Among others, he focuses on the role of platelets in infectious diseases. Previously Van de Ven worked as a Tropical Doctor in Botswana.
Dr. Shanaz Khodaiji
Dr. Shanaz Khodaiji is Consultant Hematology and Transfusion Medicine at the P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai since 1991. She has received her MBBS degree from AFMC, Pune and MD (Path) from KGMC, Lucknow.