Following
the upsurge in the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in West Africa,
Japanese researchers say they have developed a new method to detect the
presence of the deadly disease in 30 minutes.
According to Professor Jiro
Yasuda and his team at Nagasaki University, the new technology they developed
could allow doctors to quickly diagnose infection of the Ebola virus.The team
also stated that their process is also cheaper than the system currently in use
in West Africa where the virus has already killed more than 1552 people,
according to the World Health Organisation, WHO.
“The
new method is simpler than the current one and can be used in countries where
expensive testing equipment is not available,” Yasuda told AFP by telephone.“We
have yet to receive any questions or requests, but we are pleased to offer the
system, which is ready to go,” he said.Yasuda said the team had developed what he called a
“primer”, which amplifies only those genes specific to the Ebola virus found in
a blood sample or other bodily fluid.
Using existing techniques,
ribonucleic acid (RNA) – biological molecules used in the coding of genes – is
extracted from any viruses present in a blood sample.
This is then used to synthesise
the viral DNA, which can be mixed with the primers and then heated to 60C to
65C.
If Ebola is present, DNA specific
to the virus is amplified in 30 minutes because of the action of the primers.
The by-products from the process cause the liquid to become cloudy, providing
visual confirmation, Yasuda said.
It was gathered that a method
called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is currently widely used to detect
the Ebola virus, which requires doctors to heat and cool samples repeatedly and
takes up to two hours.
“The
new method only needs a small, battery-powered warmer and the entire system
costs just tens of thousands of yen (hundreds of dollars), which developing
countries should be able to afford,” he added.
No fewer than five countries in West
Africa have confirmed cases of Ebola virus within their territories- Nigeria,
Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal.
In Nigeria alone, six people have
died from the dreaded disease since a Liberian businessman, Patrick Sawyer,
brought the disease to Lagos on 20 July, 2014.
With more cases of the Ebola
virus disease being reported in the country and suspected patients having to
wait for days to confirm their status, maybe the new technology would help to
reduce the waiting period.