--- title: FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test description: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pharmaceutical company Roche's fast-acting Ebola test. canonical: https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-29T13:36:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:09:24.839Z article:section: Health og:title: FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test og:description: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pharmaceutical company Roche's fast-acting Ebola test. og:url: https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9194e31ffb65bec8/6987775c55a8593733a84fb9/89001431-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 89001431 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test twitter:description: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pharmaceutical company Roche's fast-acting Ebola test. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9194e31ffb65bec8/6987775c55a8593733a84fb9/89001431-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 29, 2014 1:36 PM UTC  Colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the Ebola virus. Colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the Ebola virus.Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 29, 2014 1:36 PM UTC 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](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/29/us-health-ebola-roche-idUSKBN0K70TA20141229?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews) 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. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/29/us-health-ebola-roche-idUSKBN0K70TA20141229?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/"},"headline":"FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test","datePublished":"2014-12-29T13:36:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:09:24.839Z","description":"A fast-acting Ebola test gets a green light for emergency use","url":"https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/","keywords":["ebola","FDA","diagnosis","West Africa","Ebola outbreak"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9194e31ffb65bec8/6987775c55a8593733a84fb9/89001431-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9194e31ffb65bec8/6987775c55a8593733a84fb9/89001431-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"89001431","caption":"89001431","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3648349/fda-approves-roches-ebola-test/","name":"FDA Approves Roche's Ebola Test"}}]}] ```