Cruise ship with monitored health worker returns

[Thor_MN]

16. Tests exist that can detect ebols before the patients show symptoms.

It would be ridiculous to think that it can't be done. The problem is getting any companies interested in something that won't make wheelbarrows full of money.


the Q16, being tested in Britain now. It's comparatively cheap, at $6,000, and weighs less than 5 pounds, which makes diagnosis possible even in remote, rural areas. Results take 90 minutes, but the best part is this: The Q16 can diagnose the virus within five days of infection, weeks before patients start showing symptoms, says Jim Wicks, managing director of Primerdesign, which makes the machine. It's slated to test live human samples soon.

Then there's Unlu, the nanotechnologist, and his team at Boston University. Their invention could beat all of them: It draws blood "straight from the vein," dabs it on a silicon chip and shines a single-colored LED through it. The Ebola-specific particles appear as bright dots on the chip, if present. Like the Primerdesign machine, it will be able to detect Ebola in asymptomatic patients. And it'll also be able to test for the Marburg virus, also a hemorrhagic fever, and bacterial infections like E. coli.