Development of a Single-Use Molecular Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Influenza and RSV

影响患者呼吸的感染，如流感和呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV），每年在全球造成600多万人住院，约70万人死亡。有必要把重点放在更好地诊断和治疗呼吸道疾病上，包括在不需要抗生素时减少使用。使用分子方法的实验室诊断测试非常准确，但需要复杂的设备和系统，这意味着结果需要很长时间，当需要快速做出治疗决定时，这是非常有问题的。类似于妊娠测试的快速护理点测试便宜且方便，但会错过许多感染病例，并且不会在一次测试中检测出多种不同的病毒。我们正在开发一种新技术，将分子实验室测试的黄金标准性能与快速测试的速度，低成本和易用性相结合。我们的测试的好处将包括改善患者的治疗，减少住院，更好地使用抗生素，减少死亡和显着降低总成本。医院、全科医生和疗养院未来的使用也将使预防和感染控制更加有效。

Infections that affect patients breathing, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), cause over 6 million hospital admissions and c.700,000 deaths globally each year. There is a need to focus on better diagnosis and treatment of respiratory illnesses including cutting the use of antibiotics when they are not required. Laboratory diagnostic tests using molecular methods are very accurate but need complex equipment and systems meaning results take a long time which is highly problematic when decisions about treatment need to be made quickly. Rapid point-of-care tests, similar to a pregnancy test, are cheap and convenient but miss many cases of infection and do not detect multiple different viruses in a single test. We are developing a new technology combining the gold standard performance of molecular laboratory tests with the speed, low cost and ease of use of rapid tests. The benefits of our test would include improved treatment of patients, fewer hospitalisations, better use of antibiotics, fewer deaths and significantly lower overall costs. Future use by hospitals, GPs and nursing homes would also enable more effective prevention and infection control.