FLICKR, NIAIDAs West Africa has battled Ebola over the last year, clinicians have been restricted to time-consuming, PCR-based assays to diagnose infection. The test required an entire vial of a patient’s blood, and the sample then had to be transported for analysis to a laboratory facility, which in Sierra Leone, Guinea, or Liberia can take hours or even days. But a new test stands to change the status quo: ReEBOV uses only a fingerprick of blood and can deliver results in just 15 minutes.
Based on lab evaluations of the test, the World Health Organization (WHO) granted ReEBOV Emergency Use Authorization in February. At that point, researchers initiated a study to compare ReEBOV to the traditional PCR-based approach, using both tests to assess 106 suspected Ebola patients at two clinics in Sierra Leone as well as 284 previously collected blood samples. Last week (June 25), the group reported in The Lancet that ReEBOV was 100-percent sensitive, meaning it detected every case of Ebola that was diagnosed using PCR. The test did yield a few false positives, giving it a specificity of 92 percent, but overall the results bode well for ReEBOV’s continued use as a quick Ebola diagnostic in West Africa.
“This is an important proof-of-principle that the test ...
