[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – Researchers at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine have come up with a way to tell if a person has Covid-19 or dengue in just 36 minutes.
This is just one quarter of the time taken by current testing methods for the same diseases, NTU said on Monday (July 27).
At the moment, the most sensitive way to detect Covid-19 is through a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in a laboratory, which uses a machine to “amplify” viral genetic material by copying it over and over again so any trace of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, can be detected.
But while such a method is accurate, it can take a few hours to complete, partially due to a step known as RNA purification.
When a patient is swab tested, their RNA needs to be extracted from the swab sample to remove any substances in the sample that inhibit the PCR test from working, such as mucin – a main component of mucus.
It also requires chemicals that are now in short supply worldwide, and needs to be carried out by highly trained staff using expensive equipment.
[ad_2]
Source link
