Island company to test new tech to detect tuberculosis
EDB President Joey Cancel
Puerto Rican company Caribbean Biotechnologies Inc. was recently granted approval by the Ministry of Health of Haiti to conduct clinical studies to test its new technology for the instantaneous detection of Tuberculosis in patients, in partnership with International Child Care’s Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
CBT has developed a device that enables the instant detection of airborne transmitted diseases such as TB.
“It uses a revolutionary and patented technique of optical detection, a large improvement from current technologies where the identification requires longer waiting periods,” said company President Jorge E. González.
The system developed by CBT is capable of detecting and identifying bacteria and fungi spores in open environments or in patients with air-borne transmitted infectious diseases such as TB. It also has the potential to detect and identify viruses.
Tuberculosis remains as one of the deadliest diseases worldwide, impacting more than 10 million patients per year, with a mortality rate of 2 million per year according to the World Health Organization.
The study will be conducted in partnership with International Child Care’s Grace Children’s Hospital starting in the fall 2015 in patients presenting TB symptoms. Haiti has one of the highest rates of Tuberculosis in the American continent. The study is a major step in the global approval of the technology.
The CBT technology was developed with a capital investment by of the Economic Development Bank, the Puerto Rico Science Trust, and the National Science Foundation.
“It is a real honor to be a part of this important achievement, not only because of the success of Caribbean Biotechnologies, but also for the great accomplishment that this new technology represents for the healthcare industry worldwide,” said EDB President Joey Cancel-Planas, adding the EDB has supported the project since its inception in 2008.
