LONDON 3rd November 2005...Two million lives lost to tuberculosis (TB) every year could be saved thanks to a revolutionary new diagnostic method developed by award winning Dr David Moore from Imperial College London.
TB is the world’s leading curable infectious killer. Every day 20,000 people develop active TB and 5,000 die from their disease. If left untreated, almost 70% of people with TB will die: a single person with infectious TB can infect between 10-15 people a year. A UK doctor has developed a revolutionary new test to diagnose active TB. The new test relies on the characteristic growth pattern of Mycobacterium TB grown in a special liquid media and viewed using an inverted light microscope. Using this technique the bacteria can be identified in days, unlike traditional culture methods which can take up to six weeks.
Dr Moore’s new test, Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS), provides resource-poor developing countries with a rapid, inexpensive detection of TB. The addition of drugs to the liquid media allows Dr Moore’s team to identify the appropriate drugs needed to treat the disease within days. This is particularly important given the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease. His idea, currently being developed in Lima, Peru, has won this year’s top award at the prestigious Medical Futures Innovation Awards, presented by Fiona Bruce and Trevor Phillips. The Judges, who are the UK’s leading think-tank on healthcare innovation, chaired by Professor Sally Davies, Director of Research & Development at the Department of Health, chose Dr Moore’s submission, ahead of the 1,200 entries because: • Of its simplicity and huge potential to have a global impact
• It will help reduce the 350 needless deaths in England from TB (TB has increased by 25 per cent over the last 10 years)
• The test is quick, average time for result is seven days as compared to six weeks using traditional culture techniques
• It can predict drug susceptibility (and hence direct treatment) “Nearly two million people in the world are dying needlessly from TB, largely because of inadequate diagnostic resources. This is a tragedy because the disease is completely curable” said Dr Moore, Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust in London. “MODS will allow us to move away from the traditional 100 year old tests and can bring equity in access to TB diagnostics to those living in high-burden developing world settings where the need is greatest but the tools are the bluntest.” Dr Andy Goldberg, founder of Medical Futures said, “This innovation could have a profound impact on global healthcare delivery. It demonstrates the ingenuity of an innovator in taking a simple laboratory finding and applying it to meet a widespread clinical need.
“Its just what Alexander Fleming did in 1928 with Penicillin.” Dr Moore and his team received a £10,000 cash prize, validation from leading experts in healthcare and will continue to receive access to professionals capable of accelerating the implementation of his innovation and allow it to impact widely. This year the Medical Futures Innovations Awards attracted a record 1,200 entries. The other 10 winners, chosen by an illustrious panel of judges, which included Dame Carol Black, President, Royal College of Physicians; Professor Aidan Halligan, Director of Clinical Governance, NHS and Harry Cayton, Director, Patients and the Public, Department of Health, were announced on 3rd November 2005. Details of the category winners are available at www.medicalfutures.co.uk --ENDS-- NOTES FOR EDITORS
ABOUT MEDICAL FUTURES
Medical Futures, the innovations company that makes medical ideas, runs the Innovation Awards on a non for profit basis. The Awards, which are in their fourth, successful year, were created by an NHS clinician and a team of experts in media, communications and business, as a platform to celebrate and showcase innovative excellence within the healthcare sector. Medical Futures helps bring viable ideas to market, whilst protecting the interests and intellectual property of the innovator. Winners of the awards receive crucial funding and expert mentoring which dramatically affects their chances of commercial success. FACTS ON TB
The WHO targets, ratified by the World Health Assembly in 1991, are to detect 70% of new infectious TB cases and to cure 85% of those detected by 2005. Only eighteen countries had achieved these targets by 2002. Halving TB prevalence and death rates by 2015 are included among the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. AWARD SPONSORS INCLUDE:
The Department of Health, BT, Amicus/General Healthcare Group (GHG), Johnson & Johnson, Equinox, McKinsey & Company, Medical Research Council (MRC), The National Endowment for Science and the Arts (NESTA), NHS National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and Partnerships in Care. For further information, high resolution photographs or to request an interview. Please contact Martine Morris on tel: +44 (0) 208 123 4544
Martine Morris Mobile: +44(0) 7939 801100
Email - martine@medicalfutures.co.uk
|
