Portable Test Helps Identify Refugees at Risk of Outbreaks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Call it a lab in a box: Researchers created a device about the size of a toaster that can test a drop of blood to tell, in about half an hour, who's immune to certain infections and who's not. The goal is to find groups of people at risk of outbreaks, especially in impoverished and remote parts of the world, in time to save lives. Wednesday, Canadian researchers reported their novel tool worked pretty well at identifying people vulnerable to measles and rubella in a refugee camp in Kenya. "We're very excited about the potential for this technology," said epidemiologist Aimee Summers of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped the Canadian team field-test the device. And while the device first targeted measles and rubella, "we could imagine having a panel of tests for any type of infectious disease," said University of Toronto professor Aaron Wheeler, the study's senior author. Vaccine-preventable diseases remain a major problem in developing countries. Measles, for example, killed nearly 90,000 people worldwide in 2016, and 100,000 children are born every year with birth defects due to rubella. Checking when a population is at risk of an epidemic requires sending blood samples to laboratories to measure protective antibodies, immune system substances that signal someone was vaccinated or previously infected. But that's costly, time-consuming and simply not feasible in areas where the nearest lab is hundreds of mil...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care News Source Type: news