UWC alumnus celebrates official release of a locally-produced Covid-19 antigen home test
Cape Town - A University of the Western Cape (UWC) alumnus and scientist is celebrating the official release of the first locally manufactured Covid-19 antigen test in Africa into the South African and African pharmaceutical markets.
Ashley Uys who grew up in Belhar, Cape Town graduated with a BSc in Biotechnologies with Honours from UWC in 2003, is also the owner of Medical Diagnostech a company that has manufactured kits for drug testing, pregnancy, HIV and syphilis, among others.
Uys and his team, most of whom happen to be UWC alumni said they were confident about their home test kit called the HealthPulse TestNow, and believe it’s one of the most effective products out on the market, especially as the country gears up for the start of winter and the heart of the flu season.
Describing how the HealthPulse TestNow kit works, the University of the Western Cape revealed that it works with an app to divulge whether or not you have Covid-19 and can be bought for 35% less than imported kits currently available on the market.
HealthPulse TestNow provides instant results within 15 seconds. It is a feat achieved with the help of a global digital health non-profit organisation, Audere, which shares the vision of developing solutions to advance health equity in underserved communities worldwide, the university said.
Recently the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the end of the global emergency status for Covid-19 but also confirmed that the virus had not disappeared.
While the number of severe cases are not nearly as high as they were during the peak of the pandemic, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said that it would continue to monitor the situation.
‘Those with comorbidities such as severe asthma or morbid obesity still need to consider taking vaccine boosters and getting tested for the virus when they exhibit symptoms.’
“With the products we create, we want to not only distribute to supermarkets and pharmacies but to sell directly to the public in schools, at churches and community organisations. We are most proud of being the first African manufacturer of Covid-19 tests to be approved by SAHPRA,” Uys said.
Uys also revealed that alongside availing his product to as many people as possible, especially low-income countries he wanted to keep the price as affordable as possible.
He said: “I believe self-testing is an important component of public health strategies worldwide and the kit is designed to improve an individual’s self-testing aptitude while seamlessly connecting ministries of health with test data to maximise the end-to-end impact of public health programmes.”
The HealthPulse TestNow kit comes with easy-to-follow instructions and guided result interpretation. It integrates with public health reporting systems and ensures that self-testing data is reported, providing a more comprehensive understanding of disease prevalence, according to its developers.
“It was hard work. This was the basis for our clinical trials and SAHPRA approval. What motivated me was seeing the loss of life around me and loved ones suffering.
“It drove me to wear my hazmat suit to go into homes to assist in collecting blood and swab samples.
“These were extremely scarce at the time due to the strict lockdowns when Covid-19 hit, but we needed to initiate the development of diagnostic test kits,” said Uys.
“The kit eliminates the queues of people who were seen waiting to be tested and then facing the all-too-familiar stressful additional wait for the outcome,” added Uys.