Point-Of-Care or Point-Of-Need Diagnostic Tests: Time to Change Outbreak Investigation and Pathogen Detection

Abstract

In the recent years, the progress of international trade and travel has led to an increased risk of emerging infections. Around 75 percent of the pathogens causing these infections are of animal origin. Point-of-care tests (POCT) and point-of-need tests (PONT) have been established in order to directly provide accurate and rapid diagnostics at field level, the patient bed-side or at the site of outbreaks. These assays can help physicians and decision makers to take the right action without delay. Typically, POCT and PONT rely on genomic identification of pathogens or track their immunological fingerprint. Recently, protocols for metagenomic diagnostics in the field have been developed. In this review, we give an overview of the latest developments in portable diagnostic methods. In addition, four mobile platforms for the implementation of these techniques at point-of-care and point-of-need are described. These approaches can provide reliable diagnostics and surveillance, especially in low resource settings as well as at the level of one health.

Ten Years of Lateral Flow Immunoassay Technique Applications: Trends, Challenges and Future Perspectives

“…Conventional laboratory-based analytical methods like high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), mass spectrometry (MS), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) usually require complex and long procedures to obtain a result [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], but several situations often require a fast and on-site analyte detection [ 4 , 5 ]. As a consequence, in the last decades, the scientific research has been focused more and more on the development and optimization of portable, affordable, and user-friendly rapid methods of analysis for point-of-need (PON) testing [ 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Disposable Paper-Based Biosensors for the Point-of-Care Detection of Hazardous Contaminations—A Review

“…Therefore, it is possible to use them in the sampling sites and by individuals who need the analysis. Mostly, the detection methods based on these devices are called point-of-care test (POCT) [ 12 ], being widely used in diagnosing diseases, examining food control, monitoring environmental pollution, etc. [ 13 ].…”

Civil–Military Collaboration to Facilitate Rapid Deployment of a Mobile Laboratory in Early Response to COVID-19: A High-Readiness Exercise

“…Establishment of diagnostic methods can be especially challenging with emerging diseases because the readiness for rapid detection of novel pathogens is usually limited to, at best, 1 or a few central microbiological laboratories in a country. 4,5 As a result, in the early phases of an outbreak, diagnostic methods are limited by geography (more specifically, by the amount of time it takes to transport samples between the clinic and the laboratory) and analytical capacity (ie, by the number of samples that can be analyzed). [4][5][6] Implementation of methods for laboratory diagnosis for a newly emerged pathogen can be time-consuming at clinical microbiology diagnostic laboratories.…”

“…4,5 As a result, in the early phases of an outbreak, diagnostic methods are limited by geography (more specifically, by the amount of time it takes to transport samples between the clinic and the laboratory) and analytical capacity (ie, by the number of samples that can be analyzed). [4][5][6] Implementation of methods for laboratory diagnosis for a newly emerged pathogen can be time-consuming at clinical microbiology diagnostic laboratories. Thus, the ability to quickly identify cases in the beginning of an outbreak of a novel pathogen is limited in most countries.…”