February 22, 2015 at 00:08World Health Organization Approves Fifteen Minute Ebola Test
The new Ebola test, which takes fifteen minutes and does not require electricity, is approved by the World Health Organization for use in Africa, reports The Guardian . It requires a few drops of blood from a finger. The PCR-based method now in use required blood sampling from a vein and its transportation to a laboratory with trained personnel - it takes from several hours to a day or more, depending on the distance.
The rapid test will be an excellent assistant for doctors in remote areas.
Ebola viruscausing hemorrhagic fever, it has caused several serious epidemics. It was first opened in 1976 in the Ebola River Basin in Zaire. The latest outbreaks were recorded in November 2012 and January 2013 in Uganda, where the mortality rate is about 50%, and in 2012 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the mortality rate was 36%. Diagnosis is hampered by the remote location of settlements from equipped clinics with laboratories and specialists: blood for analysis requires transportation, which takes from several hours to several days.
Instead of searching for the genetic material of the virus - its nucleic acid - the new The ReEBOV Antigen test detects the Ebola protein. This is slightly less accurate than the “classic” PCR analysis, but it will identify those infected with Ebola with an accuracy of ninety-two percent, and uninfected with an accuracy of eighty-five percent.
The rapid test will be an excellent assistant for doctors in remote areas.
Ebola viruscausing hemorrhagic fever, it has caused several serious epidemics. It was first opened in 1976 in the Ebola River Basin in Zaire. The latest outbreaks were recorded in November 2012 and January 2013 in Uganda, where the mortality rate is about 50%, and in 2012 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the mortality rate was 36%. Diagnosis is hampered by the remote location of settlements from equipped clinics with laboratories and specialists: blood for analysis requires transportation, which takes from several hours to several days.
Instead of searching for the genetic material of the virus - its nucleic acid - the new The ReEBOV Antigen test detects the Ebola protein. This is slightly less accurate than the “classic” PCR analysis, but it will identify those infected with Ebola with an accuracy of ninety-two percent, and uninfected with an accuracy of eighty-five percent.