Chips support diagnosis of bird flu 4 times faster

The University of Colorado (USA) has built a new treatment device, capable of testing and classifying different types of flu, including illness caused by the H5N1 virus, only after 11 hours.

Two professors Robert Kuchta and Kathy Rowlen introduced scanners and Flu Chip

Although still in the process of appraisal, researchers hope to develop Flu Chip soon into a diagnostic tool immediately . " Currently, it takes us 3, 4 days to send samples of suspected infection to the laboratory and conduct analysis. This process is too long for a disease with a high and highly infectious mortality rate. spread like bird flu , "said Kathy Rowlen, professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado. " Doctors need to know the results early to give patients a strong antibiotic and isolation from people ."

Several rapid testing tools have appeared on the market, but can only determine whether the user has the flu, but cannot distinguish what flu is. In contrast, Flu Chip, installed and read by a special scanner, can react to most flu types and produce 90% accurate results with the H5N1 virus.

An average of 250,000 to 500,000 people die from influenza every year worldwide. The biggest threat is H5N1, which spreads through poultry in Asia and Europe. They become especially dangerous when transformed into viruses that spread from person to person. Recently, this virus has affected 123 people, half of whom died.

TN ( according to Reuters )