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Until today, efforts in the challenge to address the urgent needs forincreasing patient coverage suffered from the massive bottleneck of missingavailable diagnostic tools which would be feasible for routine use in regionswith low or difficult infrastructure. By combining the worldwide firstbattery-operated and mobile fluorescence microscope "CyScope", developed byPartec, with dedicated test kits, for the first time diagnostic services arebeing offered in high burden countries also to those patients living far fromthe few capital and large cities in remote areas.
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"The prerequisite for any improvement of treatment programmes in the TBand Malaria field is the availability of diagnostic solutions adapted to thespecific regional situation and infrastructure, especially in developingcountries. By having successfully introduced an entirely new class of highlyaffordable, ultracompact as well as robust and easy-to-use mobilefluorescence microscopes, it is now possible to reach the many infectedindividuals who previously have stayed almost completely uncovered from anytesting for TB and Malaria", said Roland Gohde, Chief Executive Officer ofPartec Essential Healthcare. "Due to the development in modern componenttechnology it was possible to design a unique compact microscope unit basedon an innovative optical system and new ultra-bright light-emitting diodes(LEDs), offering significant benefits not only in terms of sensitivity,durability and robustness, but in addition making available fluorescencemicroscopy at instrument cost below EUR 1000." Conventional fluorescencemicroscopes usually are in the range of above EUR 15.000.
Besides the fluorescence microscopes, also the required TB and Malariatest kits, approved for in vitro diagnostic use (IVD), are available fromPartec. For the TB reagents, a cooperation with Merck in Darmstadt, Germany,has been entered. Merck, producing highly suitable TB staining kits, is aglobally leading pharmaceutical and chemical company with a tradition of over300 years.
The CyScope is already widely in use in Africa, Asia and Europe and hasbeen clinically validated with very positive results, both for TB andMalaria, by different international research groups, e.g. in Ghana, Benin,French Guyana, Nigeria and by the worldwide renowned and reputableBernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. In June 2007, theCyScope was honoured with the IQ Innovation Award Central Germany.
Picture is available via EPA (European Pressphoto Agency) and can bedownloaded free of charge at: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/44047/partec_gmbh/Partec GmbH, Mrs. Claudia Khmel, Fon +49-3581-8746-0, Mail [email protected], http://www.partec.com
SOURCE Partec GmbH