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Pediatric tuberculosis detection using trained African giant pouched rats

Georgies F Mgode1, Christophe L Cox2, Stephen Mwimanzi2

  • 1Sokoine University of Agriculture, Pest Management Centre, African Centre of Excellence for Innovative Rodent Pest Management and Biosensor Technology Development, Morogoro, Tanzania. gmgode@sua.ac.tz.

Pediatric Research
|April 5, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Trained rats significantly improved the detection of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) by 67.6%, offering a promising new tool to combat TB diagnosis challenges in children. Further research is needed to explore their accuracy with other sample types.

Area of Science:

  • Medical Diagnostics
  • Veterinary Science
  • Infectious Diseases

Background:

  • Pediatric tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis remains a significant challenge, particularly in high-burden countries.
  • Current diagnostic methods result in up to 94% of children with TB being treated empirically.
  • There is a critical need for innovative and effective diagnostic tests for childhood TB.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the diagnostic performance of trained rats for pediatric TB.
  • To determine if trained rats can enhance the detection rate of TB in children compared to standard diagnostic approaches.

Main Methods:

  • Sputum samples from presumptive TB patients in Tanzanian clinics were analyzed.
  • Samples identified as TB-positive by rats were confirmed using concentrated smear microscopy.
  • The yield of bacteriologically confirmed pediatric TB cases detected by rats was compared to the standard of care.

Main Results:

  • Rats detected an additional 23 children with TB among those aged 1-5 years, increasing detection by 67.6%.
  • Across children aged 1-14 years, rats identified 208 additional TB cases missed by standard methods.
  • The relative increase in TB detection by rats decreased with increasing age.

Conclusions:

  • Trained rats demonstrate significant potential to improve pediatric TB detection rates.
  • This novel approach could help overcome existing challenges in diagnosing TB in children.
  • Further studies are required to assess the accuracy of rats using diverse sample types.
Abstract

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