MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Japanese researchers have created a method to detect Ebola virus infections in just 30 minutes, a professor from Nagasaki University said Tuesday.
"The new method is simpler than the current one and can be used in countries where expensive testing equipment is not available," professor Jiro Yasuda told Agence France-Presse.
Yasuda’s team has developed what he calls a “primer,” which is directed at genes specific to the Ebola virus found in blood or other bodily fluids. If the virus is present, DNA specific to it is shown within 30 minutes, according to AFP.
Currently, a method called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to detect Ebola infections. PCR relies on the use of a thermal cycler, a machine that repeatedly heats and cools the sample to allow DNA denaturing and synthesis. The process takes up to several 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," Yasuda said, AFP reported.
Ebola virus disease is a highly deadly illness transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of the infected. The worst Ebola epidemic in history began in southern Guinea in the end of 2013 and soon spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The outbreak has claimed 1,552 lives, according to World Health Organization estimates. More than 3,000 cases of Ebola virus infection have been recorded. The number of people affected by the virus could rise to 20,000 before it is brought under control, the organization said.
