X PRIZE - Gates Foundation providing grant to explore prize for innovative breakthroughs in TB Diagnostics

More funds donated to the X-Prize foundation. The X-Prize in the last week has had quite a bit of activity and this is great to see more funds flowing towards healthcare. The map below shows the foundation’s work here in the US.

We are becoming a global healthcare community in more ways than one. BD

October 16, 2008, Playa Vista, Calif. – The X PRIZE Foundation has received a planning grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an X PRIZE for effective diagnosis of tuberculosis in the developing world. The overall goal of the prize will be to promote better management of the world’s second most lethal infectious disease. Innovation will need to be tailored for the use in under-developed regions, where over 60% of tuberculosis patients have access to only primitive, peripheral health clinics with scarce resources.

The most commonly used diagnostic method (smear microscopy) used in these under-developed regions fails to efficiently and accurately diagnose tuberculosis. Patients must travel at great cost and time to microscopy centers to receive insensitive tests requiring trained technicians and repeated clinic visits. This current “state of the art” has a sensitivity of approximately 40%. As a result of these challenges, many people, especially those who have latent TB, are in the early stages of infection, are co-infected with HIV, or suffer from extrapulmonary TB, are under diagnosed and treated, resulting in significant death, suffering, and the continued spread of disease.

About The X Prize Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured the world's attention when the Burt Rutan-led team, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation and its partner BT Global Services are creating prizes in Space and Ocean Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition.