Molbio Diagnostics is a point-of-care diagnostics company which strives to expand access to disease detection for infectious and non-communicable diseases. By bringing accurate, lab-quality testing directly to underserved communities, the company is helping ensure earlier treatment and reducing the spread of infectious disease in countries like India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, improving the accessibility of health care in South Asia.

Truenat

Its leading product, Truenat, is a portable testing platform, which carries out the diagnosis of illnesses like tuberculosis in remote areas. Since its launch, it has become one of two rapid molecular diagnostic platforms that the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed for tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance detection and is operating in several countries right now. In particular, in India, 7,700 Truenat devices have conducted more than 30 million tests since 2021, making it the core of their National TB Elimination Program.

The greatest strength of the truant devices is their efficiency; they can test patients and administer treatment in a single day, something which has revolutionized disease transmission in resource-scarce areas. Families no longer have to save up to make multiple trips to testing sites or have to wait weeks before receiving treatment, immensely improving their chance of a cure.

For example, in Bangladesh in 2022, medical staff tested 59,000 people and found 58 of them to have drug-resistant tuberculosis, meaning they would have received the incorrect treatment if they had not been able to use the Truenat devices. Therefore, these devices have revolutionized the accessibility of health care in South Asia, allowing people from remote areas to receive diagnosis and treatment more efficiently than ever before.

Other developments

Whilst Truenat is the most used and recognized technology developed by Molbio Diagnostics, it has also developed other technologies with the same goal of improving the accessibility of health care in South Asia. For example, Prorad Atlas is a portable X-ray machine, weighing less than 3 kilograms with a fully rechargeable battery and iBreastExam is a portable breast exam machine, which has helped test more than 1.5 million women world wide for breast cancer.

Most importantly, Molbio Diagnostics put their technology and expertise to work during the COVID-19 pandemic; some features of the Truenat devices were tweaked to enable them to test for COVID-19. The Indian government approved this, allowing more than 800 sites to begin testing, something which was especially necessary in transit hubs and along borders.

Since its launch, Molbio Diagnostics has led the way in global efforts to make health care more accessible, bridging the gap between urban and rural areas across South Asia. These technologies have not only cured thousands, but they have also instilled hope in historically resource-scarce areas for the future of their health care.

– Vittoria Cortese

Vittoria is based in Washington DC, US and focuses on Technology and Solutions for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons