Yahoo – AFP,
9 April 2015
Health
workers in protective suits carry a patient suspected of having Ebola,
on their
way to a treatment centre in Macenta, Guinea, on November 21, 2014
(AFP
Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)
|
Tokyo (AFP)
- 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 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 (AFP
Photo/Francisco
Leong)
|
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 synthesise 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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