Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : November 12, 2022 12:02 PM IST
Pneumonia remains a major cause of morbidity in India. Influenza viruses and respiratory diseases are the major causes of Pneumonia. Usually, the after-effects of respiratory diseases like Influenza and H1N1 (also known as Swine Flu) lead to Pneumonia in people. According to a report from WHO, Pneumonia killed 7,40180 children accounting for 14 per cent of deaths under the age of five. The number of swine flu cases in the country has also increased 15-fold since 2021. Hence, prior identification of such infectious diseases is imperative to reduce the risk of Pneumonia and further spread of the infections.
Sriram Natarajan, Director and CEO, Molbio Diagnostics, says that their Trunenat point-of-care testing platform can help control infectious diseases like Influenza, H1N1, and many more, by providing faster tests results. It can provide samples to test results in less than an hour, he claims.
In an exclusive interaction with The HealthSite.com, the expert also shed light on the prevalence of Pneumonia in India, it causes as well as steps needed to reduce the disease burden. Excerpts follow:
Pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection characterized by inflammation of the lungs. Often caused by viruses or bacteria, the infection can lead to mild to life-threatening illnesses in people of all ages. However, it is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. As per WHO, it has accounted for 14 per cent of all deaths of children under five years of age.
The most common causes of viral pneumonia include SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and influenza A and B viruses, especially H1N1 which is an influenza A virus. The general symptoms of viral pneumonia can range in severity and may include fever, a cough that is likely to be dry initially but may produce mucus, shortness of breath, shaking, chills, muscle ache, fatigue, malaise, weakness, loss of appetite, blue tint to the lips. Some patients may also experience a sore throat or a headache, depending on the underlying cause of the infection.
Viral pneumonia caused by influenza A type H1N1 may be severe and sometimes fatal. The virus invades the lungs and multiplies. The air sacs fill with pus and other fluids, blocking oxygen from reaching the bloodstream, which can lead to death. Viral pneumonia tends to affect people differently, depending on their age group. Pneumonia is most serious in people who have pre-existing heart or lung disease, pregnant women, children, the elderly, diabetics and immunocompromised patients.
Accurate and timely diagnosis of infectious diseases is essential for the proper medical management of patients. Early detection of the causative agent also enables care providers to intervene in a precise rather than presumptive manner and institute adequate measures to interrupt transmission to the susceptible population in the hospital or community. Pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
Pneumonia can be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms are so variable and are often very similar to those seen in a cold or flu. Identification and differential diagnosis of microbial pathogens such as Influenza and especially the H1N1 subtype that causes pneumonia is an important area for optimum clinical management of pneumonia patients. Specific treatment and follow-up are required for Pneumonia patients with signs of lower respiratory tract infection. Diagnosis of Pneumonia usually involves a combination of clinical history, physical examination and/or lab tests. A per currently established clinical guidelines, a chest X-ray is the gold standard tool for diagnosing pneumonia, and it can differentiate pneumonia from other respiratory tract infections.
However, chest radiography and other diagnostic procedures, such as sputum and blood cultures, may not be accessible or not routinely measured in a primary care setting for economic and logistic reasons. The superior gold standard, the CT scan, is very far from available in primary care patients.
Other diagnostic tests such as laboratory tests (white blood cell count (WBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin), blood culture, and serology have been reported with different rates of accuracy.
Rapid serological tests are convenient, commercially available and highly specific (90 95 per cent). The major drawback is their low sensitivity (40 70 per cent), which means that a negative result cannot rule out influenza infection.
Molecular assays such as Real-Time PCR are now available and considered the test of choice, due to the high sensitivity and specificity and ability for differential diagnosis, early detection and rapid turnaround time. It is a molecular method that uses nucleic acid detection, and it includes quantitative (qPCR) and reverses transcriptase (RT-PCR) assays which have been developed to diagnose the majority of bacterial and viral pneumonia.
The Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) integrated by the WHO and UNICEF focuses on a combination of interventions to protect, prevent, and treat pneumonia.
Prevention of pneumonia can be improved with vaccinations, hand washing with soap, reducing household air pollution, etc. Treatment of pneumonia focuses on making sure that every sick child, elderly person and immunocompromised individual such as an HIV patient has access to timely and appropriate care. Early and effective diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia are critical to improving the survival rate and preventing the further spread of the causative organism.
The most important step in fighting against any infectious disease is early and effective detection. Truenat COVID-19, Truenat Influenza A/B and Truenat H1N1 tests enable timely and reliable diagnostics at the first point of patient contact, allowing appropriate treatment to be initiated early, which improves patient outcome as well as help prevent the spread of the disease. Truenat has played a significant role in India's fight against COVID-19 by expanding access to RTPCR testing in rural, resource-limited geographies across the country. More than 6000 Truenat machines are being used across testing sites both in the private and public sectors all over India. Truenat can test over 30 different diseases including viruses that cause pneumonia.
By providing accurate diagnosis, Truenat ensures appropriate initiation of treatment, which in turn improves patient outcomes as well as prevents the further spread of the disease. The portable, battery-operated, rugged machines, the ready-to-use, room-temperature stable reagents and the fully automated protocols ensure that testing can be done by minimally trained technicians. Also, the in-built data transfer capability allows remote interventions and remote monitoring.
Truenat tests are priced very affordably and effectively cost lower than conventional reagents considering wastage during batch testing and high dependency on complex infrastructure in the case of the latter. However, the overall cost-benefit of early point-of-care diagnosis and the resulting impact on reduced morbidity and mortality, improved disease management and consequently reduced burden on the health care system far outweighs the cost of testing which is the crucial demand to stop pneumonia because every breath counts.
