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Singapore Scientists Invent Quick Bird Flu Test

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 06:40 CDT

SINGAPORE -- Scientists in Singapore said on Tuesday they have developed a test kit which can detect bird flu infections in poultry within four hours -- a tool which could help health officials control the spread of the deadly virus.

In the absence of a vaccine, early identification of the virus is especially important, and current tests used by laboratories take two to three days and sometimes up to a week.

"The faster you are able to detect the H5N1, the earlier you can impose some kind of isolation procedure and the faster poultry can be culled to prevent the spread of the virus," Ren Ee Chee, a professor at the Genome Institute of Singapore who led the research team, told Reuters.

The virus -- which has a death rate of about 50 percent -- has killed 65 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has forced the culling of millions of birds, destroying the livelihood of many impoverished farmers.

"We have tested on over a hundred avian samples in Vietnam and Malaysia. So far, the accuracy rate is 100 percent," Ren said, adding the kits were designed to identify the gene specific to the H5N1 strain, so they would be able to detect bird flu infections in both animals and humans.

The team is currently testing the kits on human samples.

Birds affected with avian influenza may die suddenly without clinical signs or show a variety of symptoms, including lethargy, soft-shelled or odd-shaped eggs, swelling, purple discoloration or coughing and sneezing.

The first case of the virus spreading from a bird to a human was recorded in Hong Kong in 1997 during a bird flu outbreak in poultry.

So far, the H5N1 virus has mainly infected humans who were in close contact with infected birds.

Fears the virus could mutate and spread from human to human have worried authorities. A World Health Organization expert warned last month that the H5N1 virus could be the next human flu pandemic which could kill tens of millions.

Veredus Laboratories, a bio-tech company in Singapore which manufactures the diagnostic kits, said it has sold the kits to health authorities in countries around the region.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told Reuters from Geneva that the U.N. body had not been involved in the Singapore bird flu test kit and that he could make no immediate comment on the new test.

Source: REUTERS/By Fayen Wong

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