New Dengue Kit Soon

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 (Bernama) -- A new diagnostic kit that can detect dengue virus in a person's blood as early as the first day of contracting the disease will be marketed in Malaysia from the end of next month.
Tree Med Sdn Bhd managing director Khairul Anuar Danial said the kit had been tested at several government hospitals including the Sungai Buloh and Selayang hospitals as well as the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and Johor Baharu Specialist Centre.
He said Tree Med would distribute the kit, known as "Platelia Dengue NS1 Ag", to hospitals and medical laboratories nationwide after it had been found effective unlike the present method which could only detect the virus after six days.
"The product is very specific in that it only detects the dengue virus although there are other viruses in the blood.
"It is also sensitive, which means it can detect the smallest amount of dengue virus in the patient's blood," he said when introducing the kit, here Tuesday.
The product is manufactured by Bio-Rad Laboratory with the cooperation of the Pasteur Institute in France.
Khairul Anuar said to detect the virus, the blood sample of a patient suspected of having dengue must be sent to the laboratory and the result would be known in 24 hours.
"The cost is reasonable and will not exceed that for a normal blood screening procedure," he said.