TEST FOR EARLY DETECTION OF BUNDIBUGYO VIRUS DEVELOPED

MOSCOW, AUGUST 7 /SRNA/ – Russia’s Federal Service for Oversight of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing /Rospotrebnadzor/ announced that it has successfully developed the first test for the early diagnosis of Bundibugyo virus.

"Following an outbreak of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, scientists at Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology became the first in the world to develop tests for diagnosing this variant of the virus, and the reagent kit has been officially registered," the statement said.

According to the Service, the test has high sensitivity and specificity even in the early stages of infection, when clinical symptoms are still nonspecific and difficult to distinguish from malaria and other diseases endemic to Central Africa.

The new tests were immediately sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, where Rospotrebnadzor experts are working together with their African counterparts on the early detection, treatment and containment of the largest Ebola outbreak in those countries, the statement added.