A new blood test has been developed that helps doctors determine if an infection is caused by a virus or bacteria within two hours — findings that would help identify which patients should receive antibiotics.
The development, reported in the Public Library of Science journal
PLOS ONE, could help cut down on the overuse of antibiotics, which only combat bacterial infections but do nothing to ill viruses, such as influenza,
BBC News reports.
"The test is accurate. For most patients you can tell whether the infection was caused by bacteria or a virus within two hours,” said Eran Eden, of MeMed, the company that developed the test. "It is not perfect and it does not replace a physician's judgment, but it is better than many of the routine tests used in practice today."
Routine tests for infectious diseases often take days to complete and require laboratory analysis.
But researchers who used the test to analyze blood samples from more than 300 patients, who were suspected of having an infection, found it could correctly detect a virus or a bacterial infection in the majority of cases.
The test keys in on different protein pathways bacteria and viruses can trigger once they infect the body.
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