Mongolia receives rapid influenza diagnostic equipment
Mongolia receives rapid influenza diagnostic equipment.
Mongolia receives rapid influenza diagnostic equipment. Mongolia is home to three million people and some 50 million horses, camels, sheep and cattle. Greg Gray, professor of global health, infectious diseases and environmental sciences, set up a remote research outpost that could detect the next global infectious disease pandemic in Mongolia. Gray and his Mongolian colleagues are collaborating in a project that brings rapid influenza diagnostic equipment to rural areas where previously health professionals had to send samples to the national capital and wait up to two weeks for results. The team received one of a set of grants awarded by the NIH's Fogarty International Center to bring public health innovation to developing countries. The grant supports training of American and Mongolian researchers on infectious disease surveillance, diagnosis and treatment. The American and Mongolian researchers designed the research and learned how to collect nasal swab samples from animals thought to be infected with influenza. They then moved to Mongolia and set up the study in three remote areas, informing local public health hospital and veterinary professionals about the study. Several months into the project the rapid diagnostic tests are proving to be useful in diagnosing influenza among hospitalized patients. The project will help preserve the health of Mongolian people and their animals, and could potentially save lives.
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