RAPID FIELD TEST FOR IODINE LEVELS IN SALT

描述(申请人提供)：近20亿人(主要在非洲、东南亚和拉丁美洲)碘营养不足。孕妇和儿童患碘缺乏病的风险最大，它是一系列异常疾病，包括甲状腺功能减退，损害胎儿和婴儿的智力发育。工业化国家通过在食盐中常规添加碘，大大减少了碘缺乏病的发病率，这一做法始于20世纪20年代的S。最近，国际卫生界一直在努力在发展中国家农村地区实施食盐加碘计划，那里的人口仍有患IDD的风险。这其中有很多挑战。发展中国家通常由使用低技术生产方法和管理不善的分销渠道的个体手工食盐生产商网络提供服务。在这种情况下，国际和区域卫生机构需要可行的方法来检查田间、多个食盐生产地点和分销链沿线地点的食盐碘水平。实验室检测方法不能在这些情况下使用，现有的碘检测试剂盒有很大的局限性。由于缺乏关键信息，他们在规定的水平上引入碘盐的努力是否成功，IDD干预计划可能变得无效或完全崩溃。我们与国际控制碘缺乏病理事会(ICCIDD)的协调员合作，设计了一种专门针对低碘人群的食盐碘检测试剂盒 发展中国家的资源(农村)环境。该检测试剂盒使用干燥(稳定)的检测试剂，这些试剂被合并到一个独特的分层多试剂盒中。化学反应序列基本上被编程到盒中，消除了用户的干预和处理液体试剂的需要。其他优点包括：在所需的范围内(5-100ppm)检测碘和碘酸盐，墨盒和相关读取器是低成本产品，易于大规模生产。这项第二阶段提案描述了将检测试剂盒转变为功能原型所需的研究，并包括提供独立评估和国际专家对缺碘疾病的反馈。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly 2 billion people (mostly in Africa, South East Asia and Latin America) have inadequate iodine nutrition. Pregnant women and children are most at risk from iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), which occur as a range of abnormalities including hypothyroidism which impairs mental development in the fetus and in infants. Iodine deficiency disorders have been greatly reduced in industrialized countries through routine addition of iodine to table salt, a practice that started in the 1920's. Recently, the internationa health community has been striving to implement salt iodization programs in the rural areas of developing counties where the populations remain at risk from IDD. There are many challenges. Developing countries are typically served by a network of individual artisanal salt producers using low tech production methods and poorly administered distribution channels. In these situations international and regional health agencies need viable methods to check salt iodine levels in the field at multiple salt production sites and at points along the distribution chain. Laboratory test methods cannot be used in these situations and existing test kits for iodine have significant limitations. Lacking critical information whether their efforts to introduce iodine int salt at the prescribed levels are succeeding, IDD intervention programs can become ineffective or breakdown entirely. Working with coordinators from the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) we have devised a salt iodine test kit specifically for low resource (rural) settings in developing countries. The test kit uses dry (stable) test reagents tha are incorporated into a uniquely layered multi- reagent cartridge. A chemical reaction sequence is essentially "programmed" into the cartridge eliminating user intervention and the need to handle liquid reagents. Additional merits include: detection of both iodine and iodate over the required range (5-100 ppm), the cartridges and associated reader are low cost items and easy to produce on a large scale. This Phase II proposal describes research necessary to transition the test kit into a functional prototype and includes provision for independent evaluation and feedback from international experts on iodine deficiency disorders.