New Test For Hepatitis C In Blood
A new cost-effective blood test could be a breakthrough in the global fight against the dangerous hepatitis C virus mean. The procedure was the same sensitivity considerably cheaper than current commercial tests, reported the University of Bonn. The first time would have also poorer countries the chance to blood coverage and with the best possible methods for hepatitis-C virus to investigate.
The test was developed by researchers at the University of Bonn and the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. Even scientists from Brazil, Singapore, South Africa and England were involved in the study participated in the trade journal “PLoS Medicine” was published.
Worldwide have been reported to be already 170 million people with hepatitis C infection. Often the course the disease initially unnoticed, however, threatened as of late liver cancer or cirrhosis. One of the main sources of infection are infected blood. In Europe or the USA, therefore I test all donated blood for hepatitis C. Poorer countries could not afford that or would have on older, significantly less sensitive tests back.
“In Brazil, the cost of a commercially available hepatitis C test more than $ 100 per sample,” said Jan Felix Drexel of the University of Bonn: “We are opposed to almost $ 19.” This method works in principle as the most commercial tests: All procedures therefore detect genome sequences in blood, from a hepatitis C virus come. The method can not only determine whether an infection with hepatitis C virus present – but also, in what quantity they are present in the blood. The new blood tests are therefore also good to ensure the success of a therapy to control, says molecular biologist Drexel.