There is need for antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests to identify common acute tropical illnesses.

Enteric fever, typhus, leptospirosis, dengue, melioidosis, and tuberculous meningitis present urgent diagnostic problems that require experience and clinical judgment to make early evidence-based management decisions. Basic and applied research dealing with reliable antigen-based diagnostics has been published and confirmed for several of these infections. This should have initiated commercial production but has not. Established international firms see little profit in such diagnostic kits since they would be used in poor countries with little prospects for return of investment capital. We attempt to illustrate this issue, using common causes of acute febrile illnesses in the Southeast Asian region. We believe that rapid diagnostic technology could prevent significant delay in starting appropriate therapy, reduce hospital expenses, and even save lives.