Discover PCR-4-ALL
Impact and viability of a novel mass PCR testing
method as a pandemic-fighting strategy
method as a pandemic-fighting strategy
Discover PCR-4-ALL
With the exponential growth tendency of pandemic-causing respiratory viruses, a large-scale testing campaign should be immediately deployed as soon as such pathogen is identified.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected our health, but also our lifestyles and our economies. Given its high non-symptomatic transmissibility, to efficiently stop a pandemic-causing pathogen like SARS-CoV-2, without needing to resort to economy damaging measures, would have required a mass testing strategy very early on: according to some estimates up to 10% of a nation’s population should have been tested on a daily basis to achieve this.
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Given the long periods required to develop other pandemic fighting strategies (i.e. such as vaccines and quick diagnostic tests), PCR-based mass testing could be the ideal front line of defense, since it can be developed in only a few weeks after decoding the genetic map of the pathogen. But, although PCR testing capacity has greatly been increased worldwide, regularly testing large fractions of the population would still remain prohibitively costly with current technology.
The PCR-4-ALL consortium (combining expertise in diagnostics, high-throughput-screening, virology, disease modelling, econometrics and digital health platforms) will aim to demonstrate the technical feasibility of carrying out population-wide PCR testing by demonstrating a capacity of >10^5 tests in a single day and platform, in an extremely cost-effective manner (at least 2 orders of magnitude cheaper than currently).
We will, furthermore, evaluate the effectiveness of utilizing this strategy as the main pandemic-fighting measure by assessing its ability to minimize, or even prevent, the need to implement other costly and partially ineffective measures (i.e. lockdowns and vaccination campaigns).
#jobs ‼️wanted 👀 Apply now 👇👇for a doctoral researcher (f/m/d) in epidemiology at @EU PCR-4-all project ‼️Deadline is 2nd March 23 ‼️ 👀 at
take the chance to be part of @HorizonEU
Apply now👇👇👇
https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/de/karriere/jobportal/doktorarbeiten/phd-theses/ansicht/job/details/doctoral-researcher-fmd-epidemiologie/
Our second meeting for the project @pcr4all in #Barcelona @KhalidWalidShom @dseunivr @OxHealthEcon
🇧🇪Leuven
🇪🇺Kick off meeting Horizon Europe PCR4-All.
Il consorzio Pcr-4-All (🇩🇪🇪🇸🇧🇪🇮🇹) ha l’obiettivo di dimostrare la fattibilità di test molecolari di massa e comprendere le variabili che influenzano la costo-efficacia di tale programma.
Discover PCR-4-ALL
Impact and viability of a novel mass PCR testing method as a pandemic-fighting strategy
Conventional pandemic management approaches
Not known prevalence
- Selective testing based on symptomatic people
- Contact tracing
Untargeted measures
- Clinical testing and surveillance
- Contact tracing and isolation
- Vaccination
- Lockdowns
Results
- GDP harmed
- Bad health
Legend
- Symptomatic Unknown Infectivity
- Non-symptomatic Unknown Infectivity
- Non infectious
- Infectious
PCR-4-ALL Vision
Known prevalence
- Population-wide testing for infectivity
Targeted measures
- Detection and isolation of infectous spreaders
Results
- GDP growth
- Good health
Legend
- Symptomatic Unknown Infectivity
- Non-symptomatic Unknown Infectivity
- Non infectious
- Infectious