New COVID-19 Test Kit Developed in S’pore Could Detect Past Infection in an Hour

By
Cindy
-
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One hour is what it approximately takes to do a load of laundry or whip up a sumptuous meal.

Now, in this short one hour, a past COVID-19 infection could be determined.

cPass Serology Test

The cPass serology test was launched on 15 May 2020. It can detect antibodies in the blood or serum of patients and is now available to hospitals in Singapore.

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Now, do note that this is not the usual PCR swab test.

A swab test would usually take much longer: watch this video and you’d understand:

Unlike the swabs that test for active infections, this test is for contact tracing, detecting asymptomatic cases and assessing herd immunity.

The unique and amazing thing about this test is how quickly it generates a result within merely an hour, making it the world’s first.

Professor Wong Linfa, director of the Duke-NUS’ Emerging Infectious Diseases programme and the principal investigator for the test, and his team developed this test in less than two months.

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The test will show if neutralising antibodies, those that can block the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, are present.

These antibodies are an indicator of immunity against the virus. The issue, however, with antibody test is that when a person is infected, it might take a while before these antibodies are present in the body, so a person who’s just been infected might still be tested negative in this test.

But the goody thing about this test?

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It’s great for its safety and scalability. The test has the potential to be mass-produced, thus able to be used for a larger group in a shorter amount of time.

It can also be conducted in most labs without potentially exposing lab operators to live viruses. The test is currently being tried in Malaysia and Thailand, garnering interest around the region and the world as well.

This test could have a crucial impact on how countries are looking to form their strategies to exit lockdown as it can assess blood samples for plasma therapy as well – one of the ways to treat COVID-19 patients.

Would this be a turning point for COVID-19 studies?

Ask us again in 2022.

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Cindy
Email: [email protected]