Health care access is a challenge in Rwanda, which makes one diagnostic innovation by Abbott Labs particularly valuable. Abbott’s prenatal panel tests simultaneously for syphilis, malaria, HIV, and hepatitis B, using only one finger-stick of blood, with results in the same visit. For expectant mothers who may have time or resources for only one trip to the clinic, that means better care; the test has also enabled a tripling of malaria case detections.
At press time, health care providers were just beginning to deploy another potentially crucial Abbott diagnostic product: An “antigen” test for COVID-19 that yields results in 15 minutes and costs $5.