19/03/2020
Coronavirus Screening Test Developed at Johns Hopkins
https://youtu.be/9ZpNuhqB1Qo
ohns Hopkins clinical microbiologists Karen Carroll, M.D., and Heba Mostafa, M.B.B.Ch., Ph.D., have developed an in-house coronavirus screening test that may soon allow the health system to test as many as 1,000 people per day.
This is important so people can learn quickly if they have COVID-19 and so doctors can test people with whom those patients came in contact.
“We will be able to diagnose more cases. This will allow the control of exposure,” says Mostafa, assistant professor of pathology and director of the molecular virology laboratory at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Johns Hopkins used the test, which analyzes a nasal or oral swab, for the first time on March 11, and about 85 tests were performed in the first three days.
Capacity is expected to ramp up quickly, reaching 180 people per day next week and 500 the week after that, says Mostafa. There could be 1,000 tests per day by early April, Mostafa says.
The test returns results in about 24 hours, and the doctors say they hope to shorten that time to as little as three hours.
New Coronavirus (Covid-19) testing developed by Johns Hopkins microbiologists Karen Carroll and Heba Mostafa, look to test as many as 1,000 suspected Covid-1...