New tools aim to deliver quicker test results—and prevent disease from spreading

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 WALL STREET JOURNAL by Betsy Mckay                           Feb. 17, 2015

....companies, government agencies, nonprofits and academics are developing newer, faster tools to keep better pace with dangerous viruses and bacteria, often for use in developing countries where many disease outbreaks occur and laboratories aren’t well developed. These tools, which take advantage of improving technology and falling prices for molecular diagnostics and techniques such as genetic sequencing, aim to bring tests to the doctor’s office, clinic or field, and to turn results around while the patient is still there.

“There’s a lot of innovation out there,” says James Gallarda, a diagnostics development expert at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “With so much experimenting going on, the chances are high that we’re going to see something really quite amazing in the next 10 years or so....”

... a handful of companies have received emergency clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market faster diagnostic tools for Ebola that were in the works when the epidemic in West Africa erupted.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-detect-infectious-diseases-like-ebola-faster-1424145643
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Silver lining for paper Ebola test

 CHEMISTRY WORLD  by  Vicki Davison                                                                                          Feb. 17, 2015

 The Ebola epidemic in West Africa underscores an urgent need for rapid diagnostics; quick identification and patient isolation can benefit the sick and the healthy. However, dengue, yellow fever and Ebola all initially manifest as a fever and headache, so are easily mixed up.

Now, this huge problem has a tiny solution – an 8×3cm lateral flow test. Lee Gehrke and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School adapted the traditional single marker lateral flow test to diagnose several diseases at once. It costs $2 (£1.30), takes 10 minutes, and there is no need for a power supply, trained specialist or expensive equipment.

Researchers in the US have developed a silver nanoparticle-based paper test to simultaneously detect dengue, yellow fever and Ebola. This could provide a cheap and reliable diagnosis for all three diseases, that’s as quick as a home pregnancy test.

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http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/02/paper-test-ebola-dengue-yellow-fever-silver-nanoparticles