New virus test kit has results in under an hour

[webfact]

New virus test kit has results in under an hour

By The Nation

 

 

A testing kit that can detect the presence of the Covid-19 virus in 30-45 minutes – instantaneously compared to current lab testing, which can take 4-6 hours – is undergoing trials at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

 

The kit was unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday (March 18) by Professor Dr Jumras Limtrakul, president of the Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, who was joined by the researchers involved in the project.

 

It was developed in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Broad Institute and Harvard University in the US, with funding from PTT and SCB bank.

 

Already speedy, the kit is to be further enhanced to improve accuracy and ease of use, Jumras said.

 

Thailand has 10,000 kits in stock and up to 4,000 could be produced daily if the trials at Siriraj Hospital are successful.

 

Jumras said the kit renders a diagnosis as fast as a pregnancy test and it can be built and mass-produced entirely with materials available in Thailand for about Bt475 per unit.

 

He noted that the inaugural trial run at Siriraj Hospital involved an actual sample of the Covid-19 virus.

 

The institute is ready to hand the schematics over to the government to begin large-scale production of the kits for the public, Jumras said, and his researchers are confident they will help curb the spread of the virus.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30384323

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-03-18

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[Just1Voice]

and will it also bring down the current 10k test price?

[mark01]

Farang price?

[BobBKK]

25k at Bangkok hospital should be 1000 at most

[nausea]

Ooer - that'll set the cat among the pigeons. I would imagine it's quite convenient for the powers that be to have the current lengthy and expensive testing process.

[FarFlungFalang]

27 minutes ago, webfact said:

Already speedy, the kit is to be further enhanced to improve accuracy and ease of use, Jumras said.

You mean to hope that sometime down the line you might try to make it actually work.

[FritsSikkink]

23 minutes ago, Just1Voice said:

and will it also bring down the current 10k test price?

25K in Bangkok hospital, pricing in Thai. They are taking the <deleted>.

[Mung]

10k test kits lol.. some countries test that many people over a period of 2 days 

[rabas]

The article is not clear. I think this is an antibody test for the blood, not a PCR test. Antibody tests are cheaper. Antibody tests observe your immune system after is starts to respond to the virus. It does not work well for asymptomatic cases.

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by rabas

[Denim]

Docter to patient.

 

" I have some good news and some bad news Mr Somchai "

 

" Whats the good news doc ? "

 

" You don't have the virus "

 

" What's the bad news ?

 

" You are pregnant."

 

 

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Jumras said the kit renders a diagnosis as fast as a pregnancy test

 

[RichardColeman]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He noted that the inaugural trial run at Siriraj Hospital involved an actual sample of the Covid-19 virus.

Well, pretty pointless testing a covid-19 test kit without a sample of it

[Snuller21]

1 hour ago, Just1Voice said:

and will it also bring down the current 10k test price?

If you read it, It say around 475 THB per unit. So start with reading the article.

[Sheryl]

35 minutes ago, rabas said:

The article is not clear. I think this is an antibody test for the blood, not a PCR test. Antibody tests are cheaper. Antibody tests observe your immune system after is starts to respond to the virus. It does not work well for asymptomatic cases.

 

 

Actually antibody tests  work fine for aysmptomatic people. As well as people who had been sick but have now recovered.

 

What it cannot do is identify whether someone has an active infection since antibodies will remain after the infection is gone (hopefully for life but we don't yet know for sure). Indeed, since antibodies take time to form, you may get false negatives in acutely ill people.

 

As such an antibody test is of no use for disease containment and one must assume this is not an antibody but an antigen test of some sort.

 

Antibody tests will be useful in future investigations after the epidemic passes, to try to get a handle on the true number of infected people (and hence actual fatality rate, and an idea what % of the population is now immune) -- they are I think starting to do this now in Wuhan - but the are of no help in containment phase.

 

Big issue will be how sensitive and specific the test is. False positives would have seriously unwarranted effects i.e. people being unnecessarily quarantined. They might make it a 2 phase thing, rapid test and then follow with a confirmatory PCR test.

[bluesofa]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

A testing kit that can detect the presence of the Covid-19 virus in 30-45 minutes – instantaneously compared to current lab testing, which can take 4-6 hours – is undergoing trials at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

Do I remember correctly that President Trump was waiting two days for his Covid-19 test?

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

I don't know the specific differences but Vietnam seems to have created a pretty solid test kit.

 

Quote

The kits, which utilize molecular biology techniques, including reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), were developed by the Vietnam Military Medical University and the Viet A Technologies firm, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology and approved by the Ministry of Health. They can detect the new coronavirus in specimens of droplets obtained from the respiratory tract and blood samples.

. . .

 

There are enough materials to produce around 3,600 kits right now (a kit’s good for 50 tests) and Viet A is importing more materials to produce another 2,400, the science ministry said.

 

The firm can produce more if it imports more materials from the U.S. and other countries, the ministry said.

 

 

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/20-countries-territories-order-covid-19-test-kits-made-in-vietnam-4070785.html

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, BobBKK said:

25k at Bangkok hospital should be 1000 at most

Virus test at Bangkok hospital 25,000Baht. Not surprised, the owners of this company would sell their mother for a half good price.

 

Just like limiting monopolies in the food industry (any industry) this company should be barred from buying any more hospitals. 

[thequietman]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand has 10,000 kits in stock and up to 4,000 could be produced daily if the trials at Siriraj Hospital are successful.

Not if certain people get a hold of them. They will be exported before you can say 'face mask.'

[webfact]

Thailand claims to have cheaper and faster virus test kits

 

File Photo

 

Thailand claims to have developed 500 baht COVID-19 test kits which are capable producing a result in under an hour.

 

The CRISPR diagnostic kits are a joint development by the Wittayasirimethi Institute, the Faculty of Medicine of Siriraj Hospital and PTT Public Company.

 

Assistant Professor Chayasith Uttamapinan, one of the researchers who worked on the development of the kits and a lecturer at the Faculty of Science and Molecular Biological Engineering, said that the test can produce results in 30-45 minutes, compared with the current 4-6 hours, and cost about US$15 each, compared with 3,000-13,000 baht for the current ones.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-claims-to-have-cheaper-and-faster-virus-test-kits/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-03-19

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

 

 

[Chazar]

13 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

and will it also bring down the current 10k test price?

can it  find  bombs  as  well?

[smedly]

good news 

[tracker1]

OMG another first for Thailand

[geisha]

There have been numerous warnings on the television and newspapers about Covid 19 test kits.  There are the approuved ones, and the others !  I would be very careful of buying/ undergoing  such a test . I think the price speaks for itself. If the tests were so cheap, then all countries would have ample stock , which is not the case. 

[unamazedloso]

I have a freind in China that i used to work with in the motorcycle industry that has since moved to be sales for a medical company. They have self test kits that take 3minutes!! 

[ThaiBunny]

11 minutes ago, unamazedloso said:

I have a freind in China that i used to work with in the motorcycle industry that has since moved to be sales for a medical company. They have self test kits that take 3minutes!! 

Are they accurate?

[alant]

15 hours ago, rabas said:

The article is not clear. I think this is an antibody test for the blood, not a PCR test. Antibody tests are cheaper. Antibody tests observe your immune system after is starts to respond to the virus. It does not work well for asymptomatic cases.

 

Agree, no detail so not a report that I would base hope on. What technology is employed? Have they found a small critter that turns a bright colour if swimming in the urine of an infected person?

[Yadon Toploy]

3 hours ago, Chazar said:

can it  find  bombs  as  well?

Or golf balls... 

[petedk]

Quote

Thailand claims to have developed 500 baht COVID-19 test kits which are capable producing a result in under an hour.

They don't call it Amazing Thailand for nothing.

 

Thai doctors and researchers tend to be the among the first in the world at developing new products, cures and tests and at a fraction of the price of other countries. 

 

Edit: I know a guy who was tested at Ramkhamhaeng on Monday and he still hasn't received the result. Just keep away from him as he is quite sick ( not necessarily Covid-19)

Edited March 19, 2020 by petedk

[rabas]

37 minutes ago, alant said:

Agree, no detail so not a report that I would base hope on. What technology is employed? Have they found a small critter that turns a bright colour if swimming in the urine of an infected person?

The OP just above clarifies the testing method, it is not simple a antibody test as presumed. They are using absolute state of the art CRISPR technology to rapidly detect the virus. This is hot off the press technology from the US, MIT and the Broad Institute (genetic research). Note that Thailand is very advanced in genomic research because the Royal Family has provided lots of resources over time both for agricultural and medical research. This is not Somchai.

 

https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/enabling-coronavirus-detection-using-crispr-cas13-open-access-sherlock-research-protocols-and

Edited March 19, 2020 by rabas

[1FinickyOne]

17 hours ago, Denim said:

Docter to patient.

 

" I have some good news and some bad news Mr Somchai "

 

" Whats the good news doc ? "

 

" You don't have the virus "

 

" What's the bad news ?

 

" You are pregnant."

 

 

 

I have bad news and worse news.. 

 

Whats the bad news..

You have 24 hours to live

Oh my! what is the worse news!!

I forgot to call you yesterday... 

[DLock]

Thailand claims to have cheaper and faster virus test kits

 

That's great...can we have it?

 

Or is this typical Thai "we've cured Aids", "we've cured Ebola"...to try and stay relevant.