Avian influenza testing for 10 minutes

Last weekend, a Singapore bio-engineering company announced two sets of rapid tests for new bird flu, which could give results in just 10 minutes.

The first set of tests for the veterinary industry, used to test poultry feces, blood and serum, is the world's first set of bird flu tests. The second set is for humans, testing samples taken from the patient's nose or throat.

According to Rockeby Biomed, the maker of these two new test kits, based on the immune detection of avian flu virus proteins, the two sets of tests will give results within 10 minutes. The price of the poultry test kit is about 6 USD, and the human kit is about 10-12 USD.

Previously, Singapore's Veredus Laboratory has also built a diagnostic kit for bird flu that can detect bird flu within 4 hours. Meanwhile, most H5N1 tests are now required to be performed in laboratories and produce results after at least 11 hours or even after 2 days.

Rapid detection of avian influenza can help prevent an outbreak of influenza due to an early quarantine case. So far, bird flu has spread from Asia to Europe and the Middle East, further raising concerns about the risk of a global flu pandemic that could kill millions of lives.

WALL VY (According to Xinhua)