New rapid blood test to cut antibiotic use, study, Eran Eden

Doctors have discovered a new blood test that can help physicians detect, within two hours, whether an infection is caused by a virus or bacteria thus cutting out the need to prescribe antibiotics that may not be needed.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, says that although the research is still at a laboratory stage, the scientists are working on a portable device too.  

A new blood test can help doctors tease out whether an infection is caused by a virus or bacteria within two hours, research in Plos One suggests. Normally, doctors usually face a number of challenges in untangling which bug is responsible for an infection and thus what treatment to take.

Unfortunately, routine checks to test the definitive identity of bugs can take days — as they often involve taking a sample and then trying to grow the organism in a lab — but the new rapid blood test will make things much easier for both doctors and patients. 

With this knowledge, the team of scientists working in various medical centres in Israel, in collaboration with the company MeMed, developed the new test.

To develop the test, note the study, they analysed blood samples of more than 300 patients who were suspected of having an infection. After the checks, they found the tests could correctly detect a virus or a bacterial infection in the majority of cases.

The blood test relies on the fact that bacteria and viruses can trigger different protein pathways once they infect the body. In the tests, one novel procedure called TRAIL was reported to be particularly high in viral infections and depleted during bacterial ones.

Commenting on the study, Eran Eden a researcher with MeMed said: “The test is accurate. For most patients you can tell whether the infection was caused by bacteria or a virus within two hours”.