Improving early suspicion, screening and diagnosis of infant meningitis

Duración

08/12/2022 - 10/03/2024

Coordinador

Quique Bassat Orellana

Financiadores

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

ISGlobal is investigating how to improve meningitis suspicion, screening, and diagnostic accuracy in infants younger than 24 months and with permeable fontanel in hospitals and peripheral health centers in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) through a new grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Neosonics is an inexpensive, portable, easy-to-use device the size of a wireless telephone. It uses a novel high-frequency ultrasound-based technology to non-invasively detect, through the fontanel, abnormal cell count in the cerebrospinal fluid, which raises clinical suspicion of meningitis in neonates and young infants, who present the most unspecific clinical presentation of the disease, and are most vulnerable age group to suffer it.

The accomplishment of the general objective of the study is improving the methodology of suspicion and diagnosis of meningitis in neonates and young infants with a permeable fontanel will imply that there is potential to reduce infant mortality and morbidity secondary to this underrecognized life-threatening infection, while reducing 1) unnecessary invasive procedures for its diagnosis; and 2) the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and the associated global health problem of growing antimicrobial resistance.

Total funding

637,178 USD