Nigerian scientists develop cheaper and faster Covid-19 test kits

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Sat, 2020-10-03 11:27 — mike kraft

Nigerian scientists develop cheaper and faster Covid-19 test kits Scientists in Nigeria have developed a cheaper and faster Covid-19 test kit that will enable testing to be ramped up in a place that has faced kit shortages and chronic under-testing of a massive population, according to the country's health authorities. Stephanie Busari and Orji Sunday, CNN CNN

(CNN) Scientists in Nigeria have developed a cheaper and faster Covid-19 test kit that will enable testing to be ramped up in a place that has faced kit shortages and chronic under-testing of a massive population, according to the country's health authorities.

The new test is cheaper than other PCR tests -- the most common type of test -- and can give results in less than 40 minutes, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) said.

The diagnostic test kit will cost less than $25 and samples can be analyzed using a mobile machine that can be operated by low-skilled personnel with minimal training, the agency said.

"We saw the need for more testing outfits, especially one that can give results in a short time because hospitals were refusing to treat patients without Covid-19 results," Babatunde Salako, the director of NIMR, told CNN.

"The machine we use is not the common PCR one. We bought the machine and adapted the kit that we developed to work with this machine. It is meant for diagnosis of other pathogens," Salako said.

Although Salako added that the detection rate of the NIMR test kit is "a bit lower than the PCR, but for the point of care, we believe it is good enough for now." ...

Nigeria is not the first country to produce testing kits on the continent. In March, Senegal's scientists worked with a UK-based laboratory to create a diagnostic test for coronavirus that can produce test results within 10 minutes.

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