The Hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus which infects the liver and causes an inflammation called viral hepatitis. It has caused epidemics in parts of Asia and Africa. The proportion of the world's population currently infected with the virus is estimated at 3 to 6%, but up to a third have been exposed. Symptoms of the acute illness caused by the virus include liver inflammation, vomiting, jaundice, and rarely, death. Chronic hepatitis B may eventually cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, a fatal disease with very poor response to current chemotherapy.

Aids in Africa: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus is transmitted through direct contact with HIV containing blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.

HIV primarily infects helper T cells (specifically CD4+ T cells), macrophages and dendritic cells, leading to low levels of CD4+ T cells or immunity, making the body more susceptible to opportunistic infections.

Though HIV originated in sub-Saharan Africa, by now it is a pandemic, with an estimated 34 million people living with the disease worldwide. Inhabited by just over 12% of the world's population, Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of the AIDS-infected population, retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.

The disease is even more devastating in sub-Saharan Africa due to the interaction between HIV and tuberculosis, the latter being the world's greatest infectious killer of women of reproductive age and the leading cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS.

Though antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in many African countries.

Malaria in Africa: Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, malaria causes disease in approximately 515 million people and kills between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Four types of the plasmodium parasite can infect humans; the most serious forms of malaria are caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, but other related species (Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae) can also affect humans.

Malaria parasites are transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasites multiply within red blood cells, causing symptoms such as anemia (light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia, etc.), as well as other general symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, flu-like illness, and in severe cases, coma and death. Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites with mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito control measures such as spraying insecticides inside houses and draining standing water where mosquitoes lay their eggs.

Preventative drugs must be taken continuously to reduce the risk of infection. These prophylactic drug treatments are often too expensive for most people living in endemic areas. Most adults from endemic areas have a degree of long-term recurrent infection and also of partial resistance; the resistance reduces with time and such adults may become susceptible to severe malaria if they have spent a significant amount of time in non-endemic areas. Malaria infections are treated through the use of antimalarial drugs, such as quinine or artemisinin derivatives, although drug resistance is increasingly common.

Our malaria test kit can detect all four strains of disease. Malaria test kits are supplied in bulk for corporate workplace safety in African, where testing programs include testing for malaria among workers, their family and children suffering from malaria.

Syphilis is a curable sexually transmitted disease caused by the Treponema pallidum spirochete. Infection occurs through sexual contact, or via transmission from mother to child in utero. Symptoms are often confused with other diseases. It is a severe, disabling, and often life-threatening condition for the infant. Nearly half of all children infected with syphilis during gestation die shortly before or after birth. Syphilis can be easily treated with antibiotics including an intramuscular injection of benzathine penicillin. If not treated, syphilis can cause serious effects such as damage to the heart, aorta, brain, eyes, and bones. In some cases these effects can be fatal.

Between 4-15% of pregnant women are believed to be infected with congenital syphilis in sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnant women in South Africa who attend antenatal care for the first time in the current pregnancy, have blood drawn as part of the routine care. Women who test positively receive treatment. According to the annual antenatal survey for HIV and syphilis, the prevalence of syphilis among pregnant women is around 3%.

Congenital syphyllis is a notifiable disease and includes congenitally acquired syphilis in infants and children as well as syphilitic stillbirths.

The accurate diagnosis of syphilis depends on the microbiological demonstration of Treponema pallidum. Penicillin is the treatment for all forms of syphilis. Infants born to infected mothers who received adequate penicillin treatment during pregnancy are at minimal risk.