In a first for Africa, a Moroccan company is filling orders for mpox tests as an outbreak continues in the Congo and neighbouring countries, with nearly 60 000 cases and 1 165 deaths having been recorded this year.
Moroccan start-up Moldiag began developing mpox tests after the World Health Organisation declared the virus a global emergency in August, reports Arab News.
Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that in some far-flung areas affected by the outbreak, tests have to be delivered to distant labs for processing. However, most of the Congo’s 26 provinces don’t have such facilities. And some areas have no tests at all.
In eastern Congo’s South Kivu province, doctors are still diagnosing patients by taking temperatures and looking for visible symptoms.
That makes it difficult to tell how the virus is spreading, health officials say.
“It’s a major problem,” said Musole Robert, medical director of the Kavumu Referral Hospital, one of the few treating mpox patients in eastern Congo. “The main issue remains the laboratory, which is not adequately equipped.”
When mpox cases were found in some Western countries like the US in 2022, some companies began developing rapid test kits that don’t require lab processing, but those efforts where shelved when the virus was largely contained.
Although most mpox cases this year have been in central Africa, Morocco has reported three mpox cases.
At his factory in Morocco, Moldiag founder and chief scientific officer Abdeladim Moumen said the tests they make – sold for $5 each – can help to remedy shortages affordably.
Last month the company began accepting orders from Burundi, Uganda and the Congo, and has also sold orders to Senegal and Nigeria as well.
“It’s easier to send tests from one African nation to another one, rather than waiting for tests to come in from China or Europe,” Moumen said.
Moldiag was founded out of Morocco’s Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research, a university-affiliated non-profit whose research has received funding from the European Commission and Morocco’s Government.
The start-up previously developed similar genetic tests for Covid-19 and tuberculosis.
Moldiag won approval to distribute its mpox tests from the Africa CDC in November. But it hasn’t submitted paperwork to be considered for expedited approval from the WHO, which during this outbreak has approved three mpox tests and is considering five others.
The tests are made in North America, Europe or Asia.
Africa CDC’s acting director for laboratory diagnostics and systems, Yenew Tebeje, said the organisation created a process to accelerate approval of tests like Moldiag’s because the WHO’s approval process can take months or years and “be a limiting factor for access to diagnostics”.
Historically, international institutions have not always ensured medical supplies like tests are quickly made available for crises in Africa, Tebeje added.
Only mpox tests that require laboratory processing have been approved by the WHO and Africa CDC, which has expressed the need for rapid tests that don’t need to be sent to labs.
Moldiag and other companies are working to develop rapid tests and pursue approval.
Moldiag’s $5 price for the current tests aligns with recommendations from both the WHO’s target product standards and demands of health advocates who have criticised the cost of other tests.
Last month the non-profit Public Citizen called on Cepheid, one of the WHO’s three approved mpox test manufacturers, to slash its price from about $20 to $5, citing a Doctors Without Borders analysis showing genetic tests can be produced for less.
Africa-based manufacturing fulfils a primary objective that African Union member states agreed on after the pandemic, which revealed global disparities and unequal access to medical supplies, including vaccines, tests and antiviral medications.
Moumen said experts were waking up to the fact that it makes more sense for tests to come from regions where outbreaks are taking place so manufacturers can tailor production to address issues close to home.
“They want African tests for Africa,” he said.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Urgent global action needed stop Mpox pandemic
Incorrect diagnoses delayed SA man’s mpox treatment