Africa: World-leading diagnostic system launched at Africa Health

A WORLD-LEADING diagnostic system designed to help remote health clinics diagnose potentially lethal infectious diseases is set to be launched at Africa Health 2012.
Distributed by British-based Woodley Laboratory Diagnostics, the unique Insight™ Diagnostic System is the only health screening package based on dry reagent technology in the world and has been created through a partnership between three of the industry’s most respected point of care diagnostic devices.
The revolutionary design of the Insight™ Diagnostic System will mean a full haematology, biochemistry and infectious disease profile can be performed within a short time period using just capillary blood – and helping to diagnose infectious disease parasites such as malaria at the point of care.
Having a haematology and biochemistry screen in 15 minutes is never normally achieved without sending samples off to a lab, which is virtually impossible in locations such as rural Africa.
According to the World Malaria Report 2011, compiled by the World Health Organisation, in 2010 the African region alone accounted for 174 million of the 216 million estimated malaria cases in the world and 596,000 deaths.
The 3-component system combines the SpotChem™ EZ clinical chemistry analyser, the QBC Autoread™ Plus haematology analyser and the QBC ParaLens™ Advance fluorescence microscopy system.
The system is the world’s only health screening package based around dry reagent technology, thus eliminating many of the issues faced by clinicians relating to storage space, biohazardous waste and spillages.
The system does not require any regular servicing or maintenance and can be operated using a capillary blood sample, making it especially useful in remote health clinics, such as across Africa, in the military and oil and gas rigs.
The SpotChem™ EZ clinical chemistry analyser is easy to use and provides the capability to test a total of 22 biochemistry parameters. The QBC Autoread™ Plus dry reagent haematology system uses specially designed QBC™ capillary tubes and can measure nine clinically significant haematology parameters in just seven minutes. Once the haematology process is complete, the same QBC™ capillary tube containing the patient sample can be immediately examined for infectious disease parasites using the QBC ™Paralens Advance microscopy system including malaria, filariasis and trypanosamiasis.
Mike Wickham, Managing Director of Woodley Laboratory Diagnostics, said: “The Insight™ Diagnostic System is a cost effective solution for health screening at the Point Of Care that can allow critical, life saving diagnostic tests to be performed in virtually any setting.
“The System has been created in response to an unmet need in the field of health screening, particularly for more remote health clinics across Africa, so we are delighted to be launching it at this year’s Africa Health.”
Africa Health takes place between 9 – 11 May 2012 at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in South Africa. Woodley Laboratory Diagnostics will be located at booth 6C59.
Woodley Laboratory Diagnostics is a master distributor for laboratory diagnostic products across Europe, Africa and the Middle East including Arkray dry reagent clinical chemistry systems, QBC dry reagent haematology analysers, QBC fluorescence microscopy solutions for malaria and TB diagnosis and Horizon centrifuges. Woodley Veterinary Diagnostics supplies laboratory, diagnostic and critical care products to worldwide veterinary distributors. The company’s portfolio includes biochemistry, haematology and critical care analysers, rapid diagnostic kits and more.
For further information, visit www.woodleyequipment.com
For more information contact Martin Webb, Senior PR Officer at Medilink Yorkshire and Humber:
Tel: +00 44 114 232 9281
E-mail: m.webb@medilink.co.uk