🇬🇧 A “revolutionary” new procedure at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital can identify the cause of an infection with a single test, potentially within hours instead of days.
Using an Oxford Nanopore GridION, it sequences genetic material in a patient sample and searches simultaneously for bacteria, viruses and fungi.
For critically ill patients, that could mean finding the infection and choosing the right treatment far faster, while reducing unnecessary use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
It's not yet clear when the test could be made widely available, but it's the first step of a massive shift in the efficiency of diagnosing health issues everywhere.
Writer: Mhedi
Sky News