Connect with us

Health

New genetic test speeds up Ebola diagnosis

Published

on

New York: Researchers have developed a new DNA test that can be used to rapidly diagnose Ebola and other pathogens such as Chikungunya and hepatitis C virus.

The researchers said that the test can be used even where lab space and medical infrastructure are scarce.

“This point-of-care genomic technology will be particularly attractive in the developing world, where critical resources, including reliable electric power, laboratory space, and computational server capacity, are often severely limited,” said lead researcher Charles Chiu, associate professor of laboratory medicine at University of California, San Francisco, US.

The team detected the genetic fingerprints of Ebola in stored blood samples from two African patients who had acute hemorrhagic fever, completing the diagnosis within five hours of opening the samples–the DNA sequencing itself took just 10 minutes, the study said.

Most commercially available or research-based genetic diagnostic tests target specific pathogens.

But the researchers have pioneered techniques that do not require suspected pathogens to be identified beforehand in order to detect their unique genetic fingerprints.

This unbiased approach of analysing all DNA in a clinical sample without knowing which species are present, which was used in the Ebola detection, is called “metagenomic” analysis.

To obtain such quick results the researchers developed new analysis and visualisation software and used it on a laptop computer to leverage an emerging DNA-sequencing technology known as nanopore sequencing.

In the same set of experiments, the researchers were able to detect Chikungunya virus, from a Puerto Rican outbreak, just as quickly in a blood sample from a donor with no symptoms, but who eventually reported having fever and joint pains.

In another example of the technique’s power, detection of hepatitis C virus in blood from an infected patient, present at a much lower concentration than the other viruses, took just 40 minutes from the start of sequencing.

The findings were published online in the journal Genome Medicine.

Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

Published

on

 

Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

Continue Reading

Trending