Diagnosing TB

In poor countries, where tuberculosis ravages, the standard technique for detection is a sputum slide under a microscope.  But this cannot determine if the pathogen, when present, is antibiotic resistant. Laboratory tests can make that assessment, but the cost and time involved are serious constrictions.  Now, with development from the international Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (Geneva, Switzerland) and manufacturing by Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA) a new microfluidics device can determine drug resistant TB in about two hours, based on the patient’s DNA.          MORE

Image Credit: Cepheid and Technology Review