Kilifi firm to produce Africa's first Mpox rapid test kits

Revital Healthcare (EPZ) Limited, a Kenyan medical equipment manufacturer, is developing Africa’s first Mpox rapid antigen test Kit.

Mpox, formerly known as Monkeypox, was recently declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organisation and a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

This comes amid rising Mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an increasing number of African countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Revital Healthcare, based in Kilifi county, launched Africa's largest rapid diagnostic test kit facility on May 8, with support from USAID.

According to Sales and Marketing director Roneek Vohra, the company is working on Mpox rapid test kit to support Kenya and the world.

Speaking during a media tour of the facility organised by the Kenya Editors Guild on Saturday, Vohra said their company produces over 20 million rapid test kits monthly.

“Mpox was recently declared a public health emergency by WHO.  As a team, we are working to see what products we can innovate to not only support Kenya, but the entire world. So very soon, Revital will be launching its very own rapid test kit antigen for Mpox,” Vohra said.

Vohra said they are waiting to get some positive Mpox blood samples.

“This will help us to start doing bilateral tests to see that whatever we're producing is of high quality that it can detect the disease,” he added.

Kenya declared Mpox outbreak on July 31 after a case was confirmed in Taveta, Taita Taveta county.

The patient has since recovered and been discharged from the hospital, according to the Ministry of Health.

None of the 12 contacts in the confirmed case showed any symptoms during the 21-day surveillance period, said the Health ministry.

On Saturday, the MoH said 21,350 travellers had been screened Friday, bringing the total number of screenings to 302,436 since the start of the surveillance.

Although no new suspected cases were found among visitors, during the same period, the ministry reported five new suspected cases within the nation.

"Over the same period, five new suspected Mpox cases have been detected. Cumulatively, 29 suspected cases have been identified.  Of these, 23 have tested negative for Mpox, while six cases are pending confirmation from the reference laboratory,” the MoH said in a statement.

One of the cases the ministry is following up on was reported from Vineyard Hospital in Kiambu county, where the patient is currently isolated and receiving treatment.

Apart from the Mpox rapid test kit which is being developed at Revital, the company currently produces rapid test kits for Covid-19, Malaria, HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis and pregnancy.

Vohra said during the Covid-19 pandemic, African countries were struggling to get essential products like gloves, specified syringes, vaccines, personal protective equipment kits and surgical face masks.

Revital got a $4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to manufacture rapid antigen test kits to fight Covid-19 and Covid-19 0.5 ml vaccine syringes.

“So, we're proud to announce that the small company in Kenya called Revital Healthcare is now producing over 300 million pieces of the 0.5 ml vaccine syringe. This is not only supplied in Africa but all over the world,” he said.

They are also planning to launch test kits for dengue, cancer tumour biomarkers and livestock diseases.

They also plan to manufacture kits for testing the level of drug consumption in an individual.

“These test kits can check if someone has consumed a certain drug, say cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and all these other drugs; the high substance drugs basically,” he said.

Inaugurated in 2008 by former President Mwai Kibaki, Revital Healthcare has now grown to be the largest medical equipment manufacturer in Africa.

Currently, the company is producing over 1.5 billion medical devices and exporting to over 50 countries around the world; about 22 countries in Africa. The rest of the products are going outside of the continent of Africa.

“We're now sending syringes from Kilifi to Afghanistan, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Pakistan and several other countries,” Vohra said.

The company, which started with a workforce of only 60 people, has employed about 750 people. About 99 per cent of the workforce is Kenyan.

“Today we have 750 people. When we started this industry, we were only manufacturing one medical device which was a 2- and 5-ml syringe. Today we are producing over 300 medical devices,” he said.