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| Japanese field test for Ebola that gives results in just over 11 minutes |
A Japanese research team
said on Thursday it had developed a field test for Ebola that gives results in
just over 11 minutes -- down from the 90-minute test used now.
The breakthrough by
Nagasaki University's Institute of Tropical Medicine will allow medics to move
much more quickly in treating people with the haemorrhagic fever, Professor
Jiro Yasuda told AFP.
"The result time was
unexpectedly short," said Yasuda of the trial conducted in Guinea last
month on 100 samples, of which 47 proved positive.
The Guinean government
has now asked the institute and its collaboration partner Toshiba to supply
equipment to roll out the test, he added.
The test hinges on what
the researchers have called a "primer", a substance that amplifies
only those genes specific to the Ebola virus found in a blood sample or other
bodily fluid.
Using existing
techniques, ribonucleic acid (RNA) -- biological molecules used in the coding
of genes -- is extracted from any viruses present in a sample.
This is then used to
synthesize the viral DNA, which can be mixed with the primer and then heated to
60-65 degrees Celsius (140-149 Fahrenheit).
If Ebola is present, DNA
specific to the virus is amplified by the action of the primers. The
by-products from the process cause the liquid to become cloudy, providing
visual confirmation, Yasuda said.
Currently, a method
called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is used to detect the Ebola virus.
This requires doctors to heat and cool samples repeatedly and takes at least 90
minutes, sometimes up to two hours.
The Ebola virus,
transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than
10,000 people in western Africa since it re-emerged in December 2013.
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