Cornell researchers have developed an experimental portable test designed to distinguish Ebola from Lassa fever using a single pinprick blood sample. The work could eventually help health workers make faster decisions where access to laboratory testing is limited, but the university did not say the device is ready for routine field use.
The study was published Aug. 31 in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Ebola and Lassa can have overlapping early symptoms, including fever, headache, vomiting and weakness, while calling for different medical responses, the research team said.
The test uses a strip to detect proteins associated with the two viruses. A portable camera-based system called PROVIDS photographs the strip and analyzes its lines with software, producing a quantitative reading in under five seconds after the image is captured, according to Cornell.
That five-second figure describes the software's analysis, not the entire time from collecting blood to receiving a diagnosis. Cornell did not provide a full start-to-finish testing time, a price or a date when the test might become available to clinics.
Built for limited laboratory access
Researchers say rapid differentiation could matter in places where both diseases circulate and patients must otherwise wait for centralized laboratory results. The goal is a tool that can move with health workers and patients instead of requiring travel to a well-equipped lab.
Project co-leader David Erickson of Cornell's engineering college likened the strip to an antigen test, while emphasizing the added objective readout. Co-leader Dr. Saurabh Mehta said a useful field device must withstand heat, unreliable electricity and limited refrigeration and be simple to operate.
Those are design goals and practical constraints, not proof that the prototype has already met every condition in an outbreak setting. The university's account did not report deployment in a clinical outbreak or establish that the device can replace established laboratory confirmation.
Laboratory validation
Keersten Ricks and colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases helped develop the original Ebola and Lassa tests and evaluated the platform against viral samples. Their work included assessing performance and specificity in specialized laboratory conditions, Cornell said.
Erickson, Mehta and Ricks led the study. The work received support from the Military Infectious Diseases Research Program and a National Institutes of Health-supported Cornell point-of-care technology program.
The research is part of a broader effort to bring infectious disease testing closer to the point of care. Additional validation and practical field testing would be needed before health workers could rely on this particular experimental platform during outbreaks.
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