The epidemic ofEbola has killed 11,200 people in West Africa since 2014. Science is continuing its research to fight this deadly viral hemorrhagic fever, now under control, except in Sierra Leone.
A study published on Friday June 26 in the British medical journal The Lancet revealed that a rapid diagnostic test for the virus, authorized since February by theWorld Health Organization (WHO), would be as precise and reliable as the classic laboratory diagnostic method.
Ebola: bedside tests
The ongoing Ebola epidemic in West Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia) made it possible to compare the two diagnostic methods. The results suggest that performing the tests at bedside would improve the fight against this virus.
Called ReEBOV and produced by the American company Corgenix, the test was tested in February 2015 on 105 patients suspected of having been infected with Ebola in Sierra Leonean medical centers and on 284 blood samples collected in the laboratory.
Ebola: what does the ReeBOV test consist of?
The ReEBOV test lasts about fifteen minutes. Its goal: to detect the ReEBOV antigen. It involves placing a drop of blood taken from a patient’s finger on a strip of paper and placing it in a test tube containing antibodies that capture the specific protein of the virus.
The rapid test identified all positive cases detected by the traditional method, but only 92% of negative cases.
Ebola: what does the traditional method consist of?
The traditional method can take several days. Its objective: to rely on the analysis of venous blood in search of the filovirus that causes hemorrhagic fever. It consists of taking a sample and sending it, in a secure manner, to a laboratory where a process makes it possible to detect the genetic material of the Ebola virus (RT-PCR test). In particular, this method puts the personnel in charge of collection, transport and the actual test at risk.
Also, the researchers discovered that the RT-PCR test was not a completely reliable benchmark, as a small number of infections detected by both the ReEBOV test and another traditional test had escaped it.
“Laboratory results sometimes take days to come back,” says Dr. Nira Pollock, lead author of the study. Such delays not only result in failure to diagnose and treat patients withEbola, but also the admission of healthy patients to secure units where they risk becoming infected with Ebola. The rapid test therefore represents a reliable alternative to biological analyzes, and would limit avoidable contamination.
Other rapid tests under development
The ReEBOV test is the first rapid test to have received emergency use authorization from the WHO https://www.topsante.com/medecine/sante-et-voyage/maladies-tropicales/ treat / ebola-l-oms-a-tarde-a-régir-according to un-249347 and the US drug agency (FDA).
Several other rapid tests are currently being developed or tested, such as the rapid test developed by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, which is being tested in Guinea. A team of Japanese researchers had already announced in April that they had confirmed the reliability of a test for the virus in less than 12 minutes.
Read also :
– Ebola: hope for a Japanese treatment that reduces mortality
– Ebola: the epidemic is not yet contained according to the UN
