BANGKOK, Aug 25 (TNA) – The Department of Medical Services and Mahidol University developed a COVID-19 breath-test technique which is nearly as accurate as the RT-PCR method.
Assoc Prof Dr Sathit Niramitmahapanya, deputy director of Rajavithi Hospital who supervised the innovative development in the project, said the new technique was developed on a conventional technique to measure sugar levels with breath.
The development has resulted in ten versions of the new test device since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago.
Like the sugar-testing technique using breath, the new COVID-19 testing technique was developed to detect the gaseous changes that resulted from COVID-19 infection. The changes are related to acetone, carbon dioxide and benzoic acid. Compared with RT-PCR, the new technique had a sensitivity of 100% and an accuracy of 97%, Assoc Prof Dr Sathit said.
For such a test, a person exhales into a plastic bag and a tube is then used to connect the bag with a sensor which will give a result in five minutes.
Assoc Prof Dr Sathit said that the new testing devices were being further developed to increase their efficiency. The development received financial support from the National Science and Technology Development Agency and the innovative devices were expected to be brought into use in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, he said. (TNA)
