AsianScientist (May 6, 2015) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved an Ebola test reagent developed by a Chinese firm, Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech Co., Ltd. The test reagent was approved by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration last November.
China’s Ebola test kit joins a small group of diagnostic kits. The first, which has already been approved by the WHO, is the ReEBOV™ Antigen Rapid Test by US-company Corgenix. The test can produce results within 15 minutes and can accurately identify 92 percent of Ebola-infected patients, according to The Guardian. Germany’s Stada has also produced an Ebola test, which produces results within ten minutes and is based on pre-treated patient blood samples, according to Reuters.
The test kit is not the first contribution that China has offered in the fight against Ebola. Last year, China sent a mobile laboratory team of 59 staff from the Chinese Center for Disease Control—which included laboratory experts, epidemiologists, clinicians and nurses—to Sierra Leone to enhance the laboratory testing capacity for Ebola virus, according to the WHO. This was in response to the WHO’s call for further assistance to Ebola response efforts in Africa and requests by the government of Sierra Leone.
Founded in 2001, Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise which focuses on developing, manufacturing and selling gene diagnostic reagents. Their products have been sold in more than 70 countries and regions worldwide.
To date, the WHO estimates that there have been 26,277 reported confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus and a total death toll of 10,899.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: EPA/STR.
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