Mobile suitcase laboratory assessed differential diagnoses for fevers in DRC and Nigeria, highlighting challenges in neglected tropical diseases.
Background Accurate and timely differential diagnoses is a challenge for health care particularly in infrastructure poor settings. Methods To investigate fevers of unknown origin in Africa, a mobile suitcase laboratory was deployed to DRC and South West Nigeria to support the control of the 2018-2020 EVD outbreak in North-Kivu and Ituri provinces (DRC), and to provide a point-of-need solution for Malaria confirmation during the dry season, respectively. Results In DRC the samples were tested for Ebola virus, and the differentials Plasmodium falciparum, Salmonella enterica, YFV, DENV, CHIKV. In South West Nigeria the samples were not tested for Ebola virus but for the same differentials and additionally for Rickettsia ssp, Leptospira, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Plasmodium falciparum was detected in 23% (n=192) and 47% (n=88) of cases respectively and Salmonella enterica only in 1 case in each cohort. Conclusion The aetiological agents circulating in febrile patients in Sub-Saharan Africa and the true incidence of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are still underestimated.
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Faye et al. (2025) studied this question.
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