FDA Approves Roche’s Ebola Test

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pharmaceutical company Roche’s fast-acting Ebola test for emergency use.

It can take almost a full day to get results from Ebola tests on the market, but Roche’s new LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test provides results in just over three hours. Reuters reports that the test had been used temporarily by some labs in the U.S. and other countries to identify the strain of Ebola spreading in West Africa. The test is still not approved for general use.

Early diagnosis can lead to faster response and treatment. So far, 7,693 people have died of Ebola in West Africa and 19,695 have contracted the disease. The test is used on patients who begin to exhibit symptoms of the disease.

[Reuters]