MICA: Community Based Point-of-Need Integrated Diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2

严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2 （SARS-CoV-2）是导致2019冠状病毒病（Covid-19）的病毒，该疾病于2019年12月在中国首次出现。这种病毒现在已经蔓延到世界各地，除了极少数国家之外，现在所有国家都有病例。虽然这种疾病在少数人中是致命的，但大多数Covid-19病例要么没有症状，要么只导致轻微的疾病。在国际上，有各种不同的战略来减轻这种疾病的负担，包括开发疫苗、寻找新药以及最后确定（或诊断）和隔离感染者（以防止疾病在整个社区蔓延）。在过去9个月里，在开发诊断传感器方面做出了巨大努力，使用了一系列策略，包括用于实验室检测的策略和可在社区内使用的策略。在这些已开发的传感器中，有一些传感器可以判断你以前是否被感染过（基于确定血液中的抗体），还有一些传感器可以判断你目前是否被感染（通过测量咽拭子中病毒的遗传物质）。这项建议涉及以一种初级保健、护理之家和学校的全科医生可以随时使用的形式检测目前感染的人。一项重大挑战是，许多感染SARS-CoV-2病毒的人的症状与感冒（通常由儿童和成人的呼吸道合胞病毒引起）和流感（由流感病毒引起）相似。因此，我们选择制造一种低成本的一次性传感器，它不仅可以在社区中使用，而不需要集中检测实验室，而且还可以告诉全科医生被检测的人是否患有COVID-19、流感或感冒。该提案旨在简化样本测试的方法，使其可以简单地进行，以类似于怀孕测试（就像一个带，在一张纸条上）的方式提供易于通过眼睛读取的测试结果。

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), a disease which first disease emerged in China in December 2019. The virus has now spread across the world, with all but a very few countries now having cases. Although the disease is fatal in a small number of individuals, the majority of Covid-19 cases either are asymptomatic or result in only mild disease. Internationally there have been a variety of different strategies to reduce the burden of the disease including vaccine development, the search for new medicines and finally the identification (or diagnosis) and isolation of those infected (to prevent the disease spreading throughout communities). Over the last 9 months there has been a huge effort in developing diagnostic sensors, using a range of strategies including those for laboratory-based testing and those can be used within communities. Within these sensors developed, there are sensors that can tell if you have previously been infected (based upon determining antibodies in the blood) and those that tell whether you are currently infected (by measuring the viruses' genetic material from a throat swab). This proposal is concerned with detecting those people who are currently infected in a format that can be readily used by GPs in primary care, care homes and schools.One significant challenge is that many of the those infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus have symptoms that are similar either to those with a cold (commonly caused by the Respiratory Syncytial Virus in children and adults) and flu (caused by the influenza virus). We have therefore chosen to make a low-cost, disposable sensor, that can not only be used in the community without the need for a centralised testing laboratory, but which also tells the GP if the individual being tested has COVID-19, flu or a cold. The proposal aims to simplify the method of sample testing that it can be caried out simply, giving a test result that is easily read by eye, in a manner similar to a pregnancy test (as a band, on a strip of paper).