Updated at 5.15pm: The Chinese University announced on Monday a new diagnostic test for Sars in a bid to reduce cross-infections in hospitals and to prevent future large-scale outbreaks.
Some 80 per cent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) patients could be positively identified with the Sars virus on the first day of hospital admission with this new test based on the detection of genetic material of the Sars-coronavirus in blood, the university said.
The test could also accurately determine the amount of virus carried by the patient while requiring only a small quantity of blood and a short period of analysis time, the university added.
Existing tests based on the detection of antibodies were generally useful only two weeks after the onset of the disease, the university said.
The test could help medical staff confirm Sars cases at the outset of the disease as well as providing a day-to-day virus load reading in a particular patient, which could potentially be used to guide treatment.