New diagnostic tests are being fast-tracked so they could be available by the end of the year for any future Sars outbreaks, a forum was told yesterday.
Yuen Kwok-yung, the head of the University of Hong Kong department of microbiology, said the university was developing 'second-generation diagnostic tests that can identify more than 90 per cent of Sars cases when the patients are admitted to hospital'.
Currently, first-generation diagnostic tests developed after HKU discovered the coronavirus that causes Sars can only detect one-third of Sars cases at the early stages of the flu-like illness.
'Only after 14 to 21 days can we identify 90 per cent of cases using the genetic test,' Professor Yuen said at the Sars forum.
Chinese University's Dean of Medicine, Sydney Chung Sheung-chee, said a Sars vaccine was also being developed in collaboration with Cambridge University.
Late last month, the Chinese University said it had developed a new day-one blood test that was reliable in 80 per cent of cases. That test was based on the detection of genetic material of the Sars coronavirus in the blood.
