Fever
In 2019, 5.2 million children died before the age of five. Nearly half of these deaths were due to infectious diseases, with fever being the single most common symptom.
The FIND fever specimen collection supports research teams in developing the diagnostic tools healthcare professionals need to accurately determine the cause of acute febrile illnesses (AFIs), so they can give patients the care they need while reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotics that is driving antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The bank hosts a large collection of extensively characterized samples collected and processed through standardized protocols in three countries in Africa and Latin America. Academic, non-profit and commercial research teams globally can use the collection to advance every stage of product development to ultimately improve fever case management.
Our collection
The fever specimen collection hosts samples collected from around 2,000 adults and children with non-severe AFIs across three qualified study clinics in Brazil, Gabon and Malawi. We collected these specimens between 2017 and 2019, as part of the Biomarker for Fever-Diagnostics (BFF-Dx) clinical study, which FIND managed with in-country partner institutes under a protocol approved by an ethical review board and with informed consent from all patients.
The specimens are grouped by symptoms.
Local clinical staff measured and recorded around 100 patient parameters, performed up to 40 laboratory tests (depending on patient symptoms) and collected associated clinical and microbiological data. A selection of relevant demographic, clinical and microbiological data is provided with every specimen.
| Sample type | Characterization* | Volume | Origin |
| Plasma EDTA | Bacterial infection with/without malaria co-infection
Non-bacterial infection with/without malaria co-infection |
0.2 mL | Africa; Latin America |
| Plasma heparin | 0.1 mL | Africa | |
| Serum | 0.2 mL | Africa; Latin America | |
| Urine | 1 mL | Africa; Latin America | |
| Whole blood EDTA | 0.5 mL | Africa; Latin America | |
| Whole blood PAXgene tubes | 1 mL | Africa; Latin America |
*Samples have further been characterized as bacterial/non-bacterial infection following a two-step characterization process:
See the factsheets and methodology paper below for more information about patients, symptom-based groups, the characterization process and tests performed.
- Laboratory investigation of fever (Factsheet)
- Bacterial/Non-bacterial classification process (Factsheet)
- Electronic classification (Factsheet)
- Bacterial vs non-bacterial infections: A methodology to support use-case driven product development of diagnostics (Escafadal C, et al.)
Request samples
You can request samples directly online by providing information on you research and anticipated sample use. Requests can be placed for specific symptomatic patients and/or characterization methods. Specimens are shipped on average around two weeks later, following evaluation and approval by a dedicated review committee.
Since the collection process is funded by donors, FIND only asks researchers to cover handling and shipping costs.
More than a sample supplier
Our experienced team is available to help you design your study or select the types, number and volume of samples you need. And through our extensive partnership network, we can connect you with other researchers so you can work together to advance your respective research projects.
Thanks to our long-standing focus and commitment to advancing the diagnosis and case management of fever, we also offer a wealth of evidence-based resources to support researchers through the product development process. These include a Target Product Profile that identifies the requirements for an assay that can distinguish between bacterial and non-bacterial infections in low- and middle-income countries.
Should you need help with sample selection or any other product development, validation or quality assessment issues, please contact our team at specimenbank@finddx.org.
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