The tremendous increase in the occurrence of infectious diseases and drug resistance poses higher risks to global health, but microparticles could aid the surveillance of these pathogens before they spread.
 

Infectious diseases of viral origin have emerged as potentially dangerous pathogens globally, normally associated with a high death toll in human and animal populations. These pathogens have shown characteristic speed in their evolutionary processes, enabling rapid host immune evasion and maximizing their propensity for fast spread. Some of these pathogens have shown a high ability for cross-species transmission affecting humans and animals of food security importance, with severe consequences on food security and economic collapse of the individual households and the affected regions (e.g Rift Valley fever virus).
 

Taking the example of the recent SARS-CoV-2, which spread very fast, killing millions of people globally. It showed the huge gap along the diagnostics chain as it presented a severe shortage of testing kits. In such a scenario, sampling and surveillance activities are high risks activities, predisposing health workers to the exposure of lethal infectious agents especially when invasive procedures are mandatory for diagnostics purposes.
 

Limiting the spread of highly infectious agents at a point source
 

Looking for another type of matrices for diagnostics is of high importance to limit the spread of highly infectious agents at a point source. Non-invasive matrices (saliva and stool samples) are good candidates to be considered. On the other hand, there is a continuous need for innovation of more situation-based and reliable DNA-based diagnostics test kits.
In the current study, the application of hydrogel microparticles was optimized for direct capture and amplification of viral RNA from saliva and stool samples without prior purification of the nucleic acids.

Source: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/article/potential-microparticles-surveillance-infectious-diseases-animal-matrices/156369/