Disease prevalence is highest in low-resource settings (LRS) due to the lack of funds, infrastructure, and personnel required to carry out laboratory-based molecular tests. In high-resource settings, gold-standard molecular tests for diseases consist of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) due to their excellent sensitivity and specificity. These tests require the extraction, amplification, and detection of nucleic acids from clinical samples. In high-resource settings, all three of these steps require highly specialized, costly, and onerous equipment that cannot be used in LRS. Nucleic acid extraction involves multiple centrifugation steps. Amplification consists of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which requires thermal cyclers. The detection of amplified DNA is typically done with specialized thermal cyclers that are capable of fluorescence detection. Traditional methods used to extract, amplify, and detect nucleic acids cannot be used outside of a laboratory in LRS. Thus, there is a need for affordable point-of-care devices to ease the high burden of disease in LRS.

中文翻译：

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用于传染病即时诊断的经济实惠技术的工程设计策略

由于缺乏开展基于实验室的分子检测所需的资金、基础设施和人员，资源匮乏地区 (LRS) 的疾病流行率最高。在资源丰富的环境中，针对疾病的金标准分子检测包括核酸扩增检测 (NAAT)，因为它们具有出色的灵敏度和特异性。这些测试需要从临床样本中提取、扩增和检测核酸。在资源丰富的环境中，所有这三个步骤都需要高度专业化、昂贵且繁重的设备，这些设备不能用于 LRS。核酸提取涉及多个离心步骤。扩增由聚合酶链式反应 (PCR) 组成，这需要热循环仪。扩增 DNA 的检测通常使用能够进行荧光检测的专用热循环仪进行。用于提取、扩增和检测核酸的传统方法不能在 LRS 实验室之外使用。因此，需要负担得起的即时医疗设备来减轻 LRS 的高疾病负担。