Project overview

Simplified Blood Culture System (SIMBLE)

With the SIMBLE project, we want to introduce better adapted diagnostics in Sub-Saharan Africa. To be effective and useful in tropical settings, diagnostic equipment needs to be 'tropicalised' (i.e., made resistant to dust, humidity and unreliable power supply). It should be affordable and easy for non-experts to purchase, maintain and use. Better adapted diagnostics will lead to better diagnosis and treatment.

About SIMBLE

The SIMBLE project is designed to evaluate Bactinsight, our recently developed simplified blood culture system, which consists of two modules:

A portable measurement device (turbidity metre) which detects bacterial growth in blood culture bottles, based on the turbidity of the culture medium
Blood culture bottles with optimised formulation

An additional module on the Bactinsight system contains a lens-free microscope, which simplifies and expedites the identification of the causative organisms. Bactinsight will be evaluated across two field sites in Western Africa by comparing it to the reference systems already in use. In addition, we will evaluate the usability, acceptability, adoptability and performance of the system.

The Bactinsight blood culture bottles will be produced on-site in Benin, in a production container production facility that will be installed on the Cotonou campus at the start of the project. With this production facility, we want to enforce local production not only during the SIMBLE study, but also after.

Project

Clinical diagnostic trial in Western Africa of a simplified blood culture system to improve healthcare in low-resource settings

Period

July 2021 – December 2024

Contact

Liselotte Hardy
Coordinating investigator

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This project (RIA2020I-3270) is part of the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union.

Consortium partners

Liselotte Hardy – Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Belgium
Roel Baets – Ghent University (UGent), Belgium
Olivier Vandenberg – Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium
Pierre Marcoux – Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), France
Marti Asensio – Reactivos Para Diagnóstico (RPD), Spain
Dissou Affolabi – Centre National Hospitalier Universitaire de Pneumo-Phtisiologie (CNHU-PPC), Benin
Adama Zida – Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Yalgado Ouédraogo (CHUYO), Burkina Faso

Publications

2023

Massou F, Gouton A O, Palomo B, Senou J-C, Porta A, Barbé B, Affolabi D, Hardy L. Laboratory-on-a-ship: a microbiology culture media production facility in a sea container for local production in low-resource settings. Lancet Microbe March 9, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(23)00070-8

2022

Barbé B, Corsmit E, Jans J, Kaur K, Baets R, Jacobs J, Hardy L. Pilot Testing of the “Turbidimeter”, a Simple, Universal Reader Intended to Complement and Enhance Bacterial Growth Detection in Manual Blood Culture Systems in Low-Resource Settings. Diagnostics. 2022; 12(3):615. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12030615
Ombelet S, Natale A, Ronat JB, Kesteman T, Vandenberg O, Jacobs J, Hardy L. Biphasic versus monophasic manual blood culture bottles for low-resource settings: an in-vitro study. Lancet Microbe. 2022 Feb;3(2):e124-e132. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00241-X
Ombelet S, Kpossou G, Kotchare C, Agbobli E, Sogbo F, Massou F, Lagrou K, Barbé B, Affolabi D, Jacobs J. Blood culture surveillance in a secondary care hospital in Benin: epidemiology of bloodstream infection pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. BMC Infect Dis. 2022 Feb 3;22(1):119. doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07077-z.
Ombelet S, Natale A, Ronat JB, Vandenberg O, Jacobs J, Hardy L. Considerations in evaluating equipment-free blood culture bottles: A short protocol for use in low-resource settings. PLoS One. 2022 Apr 25;17(4):e0267491. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267491. eCollection 2022.

2021

Orekan J, Barbé B, Oeng S, Ronat JB, Letchford J, Jacobs J, Affolabi D, Hardy L. Culture media for clinical bacteriology in low- and middle-income countries: challenges, best practices for preparation and recommendations for improved access. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2021 May 18:S1198-743X(21)00239-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2021.05.016.
Pierre Marcoux (CEA-LETI) and Liselotte Hardy (ITM) are co-editors of a special issue for the journal “Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology” dedicated to “Phenotypic identification of micro-organisms through label-free optic methods”
Liselotte Hardy (ITM) is editor of a special issue for the journal “Diagnostics” that is fully dedicated to “Point-of-care Diagnostics for Low-Resource Settings”

Oral / poster presentations

At ASLM, 12-15 December (Cape Town):

Douarre C, David D, Picard E, Hadji E, Marcoux P. Diagnosis of bacterial bloodstream infections in low-resource settings: How can imaging and AI help? Invited lecture in the session “Transforming diagnostics: the role of AI, robotic technology and computer science"

At the EDCTP Forum, 8-10 November (Paris):

Douarre C, Fangazio M, David D, Picard E, Hadji E, Vandenberg O, Hardy L, Marcoux P. Simple imaging system for optical label-free identification of bacterial clinical isolates in Low-Resource Settings (LRS). BMJ Global Health 2023;8:A48.
Barbé B, Corsmit E, Ghomashi M, Marchesin F, Cornelis J, Kaur K, Baets R, Jacobs J, Hardy L. Access to diagnosis of bloodstream infections in low-resource settings: evaluation of the improved “Turbidimeter” prototype to detect bacterial growth in manual blood culture systems. BMJ Global Health 2023;8:A75-A76.

At the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), 15 to 18 April 2023 (Copenhagen):

Massou F, Gouton A O, Palomo B, Senou J-C, Porta A, Barbé B, Affolabi D, Hardy L. Improving local production of quality-assured culture media in resource limited settings: design, manufacturing, transport, and installation of a microbiology production facility in a transportable container at Cotonou, Benin

At the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), 9 to 12 July 2021 (online):

Barbé B, Corsmit E, Jans J, Kaur K, Baets R, Jacobs J, Hardy L. Equipment-free detection of bacterial growth in blood cultures for low-resource settings: proof of concept of the Turbidimeter.
Schiavone P, Zamoun I, Soulan S, Maire A, Gougis M, Marcoux PR, González TY, Mugnier G, Picard E, Zelsmann M, Hadji E, Peyrade D. Artificial intelligence and large field, high resolution lensless imaging for nondestructive, label-free identification directly on agar.
Marcoux PR, Fourar M, Hamerlinck H, Naessens E, Ngolè F, Benahmed S, Bergmann E, Decq D, Mermet X, Belafdil C, Gal O, Grohs P, Verhasselt B, Roch M, Schultz E. Nondestructive optical identification of pathogens on agar through laser backscattering.