US Authorities Allow Rapid Tests For Flu And Corona

The US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization for a fast take a look at that may concurrently detect the coronavirus and the 2 flu viruses, influenza A and B. The authority introduced this in a press launch.

The take a look at is the primary of its sort to be freely accessible. With the “Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Residence Take a look at” from the Californian firm Lucira Well being, you’ll be able to decide inside half an hour whether or not you may have been contaminated with the corona or flu virus.

Combi-Take a look at can reliably detect flu and corona viruses

Even when the single-use take a look at is dealt with in the identical means as a standard antigen take a look at, the outcomes are similar to these of knowledgeable PCR take a look at. The take a look at by the drug authority attested to the excessive reliability of the take a look at.

The take a look at detected 99.3 p.c of unfavorable and 90.1 p.c of optimistic influenza A samples, one hundred pc of unfavorable and 88.3 p.c of optimistic Covid-19 samples and 99.9 p.c of unfavorable influenza B samples decide accurately.

Because the influenza B virus is hardly circulating within the present flu season, it was not potential to find out the variety of right optimistic outcomes. Nonetheless, laboratory exams confirmed that the take a look at additionally had a excessive stage of reliability right here.

The producer of the take a look at filed for chapter just a few days in the past

Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Heart for Gadgets and Radiological Well being, mentioned the approval was “an vital milestone towards rising shopper entry to diagnostic exams that may be carried out fully at residence.”

It’s nonetheless unclear when the take a look at might be accessible within the US, as a result of the producer filed for chapter just a few days in the past. As Lucira Well being itself introduced, that is primarily on account of the truth that the demand for corona exams fell in 2022 – and the FDA approval course of took longer than anticipated. The corporate is now on the lookout for traders.