RE: DnaNudge23 May 2020 19:31
Sorry I've been out. Here is the Times article, in 2 parts (character limit)
#1
"One-hour Covid test approved for rollout":
A test that detects coronavirus in just over an hour without the need for a laboratory has been given regulatory approval to be introduced across Britain.
The small swab requires no medical expertise and is minimally invasive. Importantly, it differentiates between an imperfect sample and an absence of the disease, eliminating false negatives.
In hospital settings it means that patients requiring emergency surgery can be assessed quickly. Surgeons will not have to wear cumbersome PPE unnecessarily. For women in labour who are tested on arrival, it is the difference between holding their newborn baby or having to wait up to 72 hours for a traditional test to come back.
The government has been piloting the DnaNudge test since April with 10,000 kits used in London hospitals. After approval this month from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for widespread clinical use, a further 70,000 testing kits were delivered to hospitals.
They are being used in A&E, maternity units and cancer wards at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, West Middlesex University Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital.
Unlike the standard Covid-19 test that requires invasive swabbing of the throat and nose, the DnaNudge detects the virus from a small swab of the nostril. This is inserted into a handheld reader that provides results within 75 minutes, eliminating the need to send samples to laboratories to be processed, which can take up to 72 hours.
The development team at Imperial College London (ICL) says the test is the first of its kind to have the MHRA’s approval for mass use in hospitals.
The next step is to make it available for people to buy at £40 for home use and for companies to get staff back into offices. They aim to carry out 300,000 tests a month by September and one million a month by the end of the year.
The product has been adapted from a consumer test that uses a person’s genetic profile to advise them on foods to eat. The inventor, Professor Chris Toumazou of ICL, is working with ministers to spread use of the test across the health and care sector.
A clinical trial involving 500 symptomatic and asymptomatic patients found that the test could detect positive cases more than 97 per cent of the time and negative cases 100 per cent of the time.
Dr Gary Davies, medical director of Chelsea and Westminster, said that the test transformed how the hospital dealt with suspected coronavirus patients.
“We were having to use all the side rooms for patients who were waiting for test results,” he said. “Other vulnerable patients, such as people undergoing cancer treatment, had nowhere to go. It is heartbreaking for mothers who are unable to see their baby while waiting for lab test results. Now the mother-baby bonding can be immediate.”
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