Contributed by Siddarth David and Dr. Tamhankar
Given that identifying and treating blood infections that are antibiotic resistant takes up to three days, researchers Brigham Young University, Utah, USA are in the process of developing a speedier blood test to detect such infections.
Working on a fund from the National Institutes of Health, of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the researchers have developed an opto-fluidic microchip. The device is still in design but will first filter out a sample's blood cells to isolate bacteria and DNA from the bacteria will be extracted, sequenced and scanned for matches with known sequences of drug-resistant strains. Potentially harmful bacteria DNA will get flagged with fluorescing molecules.
After perfecting and testing the technology it should be available in the next few years, this can significantly reduce the time for detecting antibiotic-resistant infections and mortality associated with it.
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