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Photo: stada.com
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German
drugmaker Stada will launch a test next month that can diagnose Ebola virus infections
within minutes, it said on Monday, a move it hopes will help to slow the spread
of the disease. The
test, which is being marketed by Stada, was developed and produced by unlisted
German diagnostics firm Senova. It yields results based on pre-treated patient
blood samples within about 10 minutes.
Stada
said its main use would likely be to diagnose the deceased because their body
fluids do not need to be pre-treated before testing. Contact by mourners with
their dead relatives is a common way for the disease to be transmitted.
"The
viral load in people who have died of Ebola is so high that a mere throat swab
suffices to perform the rapid test," Senova owner Hans Hermann Soeffing
said.
The
number of new cases of Ebola rose in all three of West Africa's worst-hit
countries last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, ending
previously encouraging declines across the region.
In
all, 8,981 people have died of Ebola out of 22,495 known cases in nine
countries since the outbreak began in December 2013, according to the WHO.
Using
Stada's test on living patients will typically require pre-treating blood
samples with battery-powered centrifuges, which are available at most emergency
relief centres in the affected regions, a company spokesman said.
Stada,
a supplier of generic drugs, non-prescription treatments and diagnostic kits,
said it would distribute the test from next month to aid organizations for 3.20
euros ($3.66) apiece, which covers its costs.
The
test has been shown to work in a trial with several hundred participants in
Guinea, according to the company.
While Stada said the test was the first of its
kind, there have been previous efforts to speed Ebola diagnosis. Health charity
The Wellcome Trust said in November a new 15-minute Ebola test it helped fund
was being tried out in Guinea, targeting six times faster testing than
diagnostic kits currently in use.
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