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New blood test can predict fate of Ebola patients

Monday 23rd January 2017
A new blood test that can accurately predict the fate of Ebola patients has been developed. Image: DragonImages via iStock
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Scientists have developed a new blood test that is able to predict the fate of individuals diagnosed with the often deadly Ebola virus.

Since the epidemic of the life-threatening infection in West Africa that began in 2013, researchers from the University of Liverpool in the UK and Boston University in the US have been working in conjunction with Public Health England to find a way to accurately predict prognosis for Ebola patients.

Using blood samples collected at the European Mobile Laboratory in Guinea, scientists looked for specific biomarker patterns in the cells of survivors of Ebola, comparing them to the blood of people who succumbed to the disease.

This allowed them to identify the biomarkers that indicated survival, meaning testing the blood of people diagnosed with Ebola in the future and looking for these biological indicators could allow doctors to accurately predict which patients are most likely to survive.

As a result, health professionals will be able to make sure those with a the worst prognoses are receiving the best possible medication for their needs, which could potentially improve their chance of survival, changing the face of Ebola treatment for good.

At the moment, the test is most accurate when the blood samples being analysed are from patients with extreme viral loads of Ebola in their system, meaning it may not work quite as well on mid-range viral loads. Therefore, further investigations need to take place to identify biomarkers in patients with all extremities of the Ebola virus to enable precise blood tests to be developed for every individual diagnosed with the infection.

Dr John Connor, an associate professor of microbiology at the Boston University School of Medicine, commented: "It is not just defining how much Ebola virus is present in a patient that defines whether a patient will survive. How the patients fights the infection is also key.

"Defining common aspects of how the immune system responds in individuals that survive opens a new window for studying how to keep Ebola virus infection from being a fatal infection."

Written by Martin Lambert

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