Today we are happy to present you special report from our friend Cordula from Take That TB organization:
We are happy to welcome Bart Weetjens today
who is the founder of APOPO. He told us many interesting things concerning the
APOPO idea, the rat training and the amazing work of these small intelligent
animals. There are many things to say. The rats are originally trained for
landmine detection but Bart found out that people dying from landmines compared
with people dying from Tuberculosis, are the minority. He says that every life
hast the same value but that detecting TB is an urgent need as every 20 seconds
a human being dies because of TB. TB has to be detected as early as t to give
the patients an adequate treatment.
Bart Weetjens loved playing with his pet rats when he was a young boy. Years later, as a student at the University of Antwerp, Bart applied the idea of using rodents for mine detection as an outcome of his analysis of the global mine detection problem.
Due to his childhood experience, he knew
that rats, with their strong sense of smell and trainability, could provide a
cheaper, more efficient, and locally available means to detect landmines. Early
research into this technology began in Belgium, with initial financial support given from the
Belgian Directorate for International Co-operation (DGIS) in 1997 to develop
the concept.
In 2000, APOPO moved its headquarters to Morogoro, Tanzania, following partnerships with the Sokoine University of Agriculture and the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force. Now housed
by the University, APOPO trains the rats – termed HeroRATs because of their
life-saving capabilities – in near-to-real conditions.
In 2003, APOPO won the World Bank Development
Marketplace Global Competition, which provided seed funding to commence research
into another application of detection rats technology: Tuberculosis (TB) detection.
In 2008, APOPO provided proof of principle
for the utilization of trained rats in detecting pulmonary tuberculosis in human sputum samples. In 2010, APOPO launched a three-year
research plan to closely examine the effectiveness of detection rats in diagnosing
tuberculosis, in comparison to other diagnostic technologies, and to focus on
future implementation models.
Detecting tuberculosis by scent
Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest
diseases in the world, responsible for 9.2 million new illnesses and 1.7
million deaths each year, mainly in poor countries. Rat detection technology is
aiding DOTS programs to help
diagnose vulnerable populations.
APOPO trains Detection Rats to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human sputum samples. In APOPO’s laboratory in
Tanzania, rats sniff a series of 10 holes in a line cage, under which human
sputum samples are placed for evaluation. When a rat detects TB, it indicates by
keeping its nose in the sample hole and scratching at the surface of the line
cage.
Advantages over microscopy
Currently, in most of the world,
tuberculosis is detected through microscopy, a method that has not changed
significantly in the last 100 years. Microscopy is relatively slow: on average,
a laboratory technician can process 40 samples per day, while a trained rat can
evaluate the same number of samples in less than seven minutes.
APOPO’s Detection Rats provide second-line
screening to eight partner DOTS Centres, located in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro,
Tanzania. In 2010, this second-line screening increased new TB case detection
rates of APOPO’s partner hospitals by 43%.
Plans
In the future, APOPO hopes Detection Rats
will become a key instrument in curbing the spread of Tuberculosis worldwide.
Exceptionally fast, accurate, and cost-effective, Detection Rats have an important
role to play in screening large and at-risk populations
Awards
·
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Fellowship awarded to founder, Bart Weetjens
·
The Skoll Award for
Social Entrepreneurship in 2008 from the Skoll Foundation
·
Fellow for the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship - Awarded to founder, Bart Weetjens
For
further information please read the annual report 2011 here: http://www.apopo.org/en/about-apopo/press/annual-reports
Please
support the wonderful work by adopting a rat:
Read
more about APOPO here:
http://www.apopo.org/en/
