In what can be considered a breakthrough in the prevention of the difficult-to-identify bird flu-causing H5N1 virus, a test that can diagnose the condition in as little as 12 hours has been developed by researchers.
The new kit shaves off days from the process which now takes almost a week. “This state-of-the-art research is vital to our efforts to protect the nation's health, and it may provide a new tool in our toolbox in the fight against influenza,” said US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Julie Gerberding.
The test involves a microchip called FluChip that contains genetic material, DNA and RNA, from different strains of viruses that cause influenza. Developed by researchers from the University of Colorado and the CDC, the test is an improvement over another four-hour test that had been announced recently in that it can not only give a positive or negative diagnosis but also identify the type and subtype of the strain present in a victim. What's more, the virus' geographic origin can also be identified with the test kit.
FluChip “really allows us to get a lot of information about a virus in a short time,” said CDC's flu department head Nancy J Cox. Lab tests have found the kit to identify the subtype and type of the flu virus with an accuracy of 72 per cent. “This test provides a lot more information. We were surprised and pleased at how well the chip performed in the early tests,” added Kathy Rowlen of University of Colorado, who led the team that developed the test.
Perhaps the best feature of FluChip is that it can be used to identify an outbreak in the country where it occurred so the spread of the disease can be tackled faster. Presently, identifying the flu caused by the dreaded H5N1 virus needs a frozen sample to be sent to a specialized high biosecurity laboratory because the sample being used for the diagnosis is a live virus. But with the new kit, health experts can identify the strain in any lab equipped with the technology to study genetic material. In addition, since the new test utilizes pieces of genetic material instead of live virus, it is safe to conduct the tests in a low biosecurity lab.
The test, which according to Rowlen can help scientists “who want to track all subtypes of influenza that are infecting people”, sports a robotic arm that smears onto a microscopic slide genetic material of the different influenza viruses. This smeared slide is then made to come in contact with a liquid containing genetic bits of the virus collected from a victim. If the genetic material from the liquid binds with that in the slide, the diagnosis is positive and the type of material on the slide the bits from the victim's virus bind with identifies the viral strain present.
The development met with good response from the medical circles, which see the threat of a bird flu pandemic as the biggest facing mankind as of now. “The ability to quickly and accurately identify strains of influenza would be invaluable to international flu surveillance efforts. This is an encouraging advance,” said Anthony S Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Rowlen added that a more advanced test would be available in the next two years. The
Journal of Clinical Microbiology has published the details and the mechanism of FluChip.
Discovered first in Asia, the flu has so far claimed millions of birds and infected 241 humans, of which 141 have succumbed to the disease. Indonesia and Vietnam have recorded the highest number of cases, with 60 and 93 infections and 46 and 42 deaths respectively. A mutation of the H5N1 virus capable of spreading from one human to another may cause a worldwide pandemic that has the ability to kill millions.
