A new device similar to a simple pregnancy
home-test could allow doctors to diagnose a
patient with suspected Ebola in under 15
minutes, its French developers said Tuesday.
Trials at a high-security lab have validated the
technique and prototype kits should be
available in Ebola-hit countries by the end of
October for a clinical trial, France’s Atomic
Energy Commission (CEA) said in a statement.
The diagnostic tool, not yet approved by
regulators, works by monoclonal antibodies
reacting to the presence of virus in a tiny
sample, which can be a drop of blood, plasma
or urine, it said.
A European pharma company Vedalab is
turning it into a user-friendly kit called Ebola
eZYSCREEN.
Similar to a DIY pregnancy test, a positive
result sees a small stripe showing up in a
results window on the hand-held device.
The kit is simple to use in the field without any
additional equipment, said the CEA, which also
does non-nuclear research with a possible
military or security application.
“It can give a result in less than 15 minutes for
anyone showing symptoms of the disease,” it
said.
“Current tests, which are based on genetic
detection of the virus, are highly sensitive but
need special equipment, take between two and
a quarter and two and a half hours and can
only be carried out in a lab,” the CEA
explained.
Scientists at the agency began working on the
diagnostic tool in mid-August, when the
epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
worsened. The test is for the so-called Zaire
ebolavirus, the strain now circulating in West
Africa.
The achievement builds on previous Ebola
research funded in part by the French defence
ministry as part of its anti-bioterrorism
programme.
This research had “saved more than a year” in
development time of the diagnostic test, the
CEA said.
More than 4,500 people have been killed by
Ebola since the start of the year, almost all of
them in west Africa.
The epidemic has thrown the spotlight on poor
infrastructure in the three hardest-hit nations
but also the lack of weapons to tackle a
disease that until now had been extremely rare
and claimed relatively few lives.
Other pharmaceutical teams are also working
on fast diagnostic tools for Ebola. They include
Primerdesign, a spinoff company of Britain’s
University of Southampton, and Corgenix
Medical Corp of the United States.


source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/scientists-develop-devise-diagnose-patient-ebola-15-minutes/

k

OK, that's improvement but we need more than just a home-test kit, we need the cure. The rate at which people die of Ebola these days is alarming.