Simple, 'Last-Generation' Technology to Assist African AIDS Victims

A researcher at Purdue University is leading an effort to manufacture low-cost devices that would make it possible to perform affordable, widespread medical testing for millions of AIDS victims in Africa and enable them to receive treatment.

A $250,000 gift from Ohio-based manufacturer Parker Hannifin Corp. is helping launch the project.

The $5,000 cell analyzers could measure the blood's content of CD4 cells that indicate how well a patient's immune system is holding up and how far AIDS has advanced. Normal CD4 cell counts of 500-1,500 are depleted by AIDS. By definition, counts of less than 200 and the presence of the HIV virus are diagnostic indicators for AIDS.

"Unless patients in Africa are found to have CD4 counts of less than 200, they cannot receive antiviral treatment, but the machines now in use are too expensive for most Africans to afford," said J. Paul Robinson, a professor in Purdue's schools of biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine whose research is based at the Bindley Bioscience Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.

Sophisticated machines called flow cytometers now are used to perform blood analysis for CD4, but the machines, which cost up to $100,000, are too complex to maintain and too expensive to operate in Africa and other resource-poor nations, Robinson said. The new devices essentially would be simplified flow cytometers.

"The current cost for CD4 tests per patient in Africa is about $12, which is ridiculous since the monthly income of someone in Africa often is less than $10," Robinson said. "We believe that we can build a device that will reduce the cost for CD4 tests to 50 or 25 cents."

The effort has received a boost with the $250,000 donation from Parker Hannifin Corp., which will be formally recognized for its contribution on Thursday (Aug. 3) during a meeting with industry representatives to discuss creation of a proposed National Center for Applied Cytomics at Purdue.

"Parker Hannifin is fortunate enough to be in a position to help start to shape this trend and help to curb this epidemic with a unique initiative being proposed at Purdue University," said Rich Parker, medical products manager for Parker Hannifin. "Parker Hannifin has a tremendous opportunity to support work by this most recognized expert in the field of analytical cytology.

"A development partnership with the collaboration of Parker providing funding and design resources and Purdue providing scientific expertise will be a powerful combination that could have a far-reaching and life-changing impact for millions of people."

Cleveland, Ohio-based Parker Hannifin is a manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems.

Robinson, who is current president of the International Society for Analytical Cytology, calls the effort to produce and distribute the low-cost devices the Cytometry for Life program.