Hope for SARS virus test
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Suspect case: A person who develops high fever (greater than 38 C / 100.4 F) and respiratory symptoms such as cough, breathing difficulty or shortness of breath, within 10 days of
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HAMBURG, Germany (CNN) -- The first commercial test for the respiratory virus that has killed 144 people worldwide is being distributed by a German biotechnology company.
Artus, based in Hamburg, told CNN on Tuesday that it had developed the test for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in just two weeks and began distributing it free of charge.
"There is an urgent medical need for this test. We are giving it away because we haven't been able to do all the evaluation needed in such a short time," Kay Koerner, marketing manager at Artus, said.
He added that the company was confident the test was effective at identifying the SARS virus and would charge laboratories for the kits after more thorough evaluation had been completed.
Its test can detect the virus from throat swabs, sputum or feces and produces results in two hours, and not the 10 to 20 days the existing one takes after the infection takes hold, the company said.
More than 3,300 people have been infected worldwide. China says 64 people have died from the virus and more than 1,418 have been infected.
Chinese leaders said on Tuesday the medical situation across the country remained "grave. " (Full story)
Artus, which has subsidiaries in Malaysia and the United States, said it had developed the test with the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute (BNI) for Tropical Medicine and had already sent the test kits to a number of Asian countries and laboratories.
Artus was set up as an independent company by the BNI. The head of BNI, German microbiologist Bernhard Fleischer said late last month that his institute had probably identified the virus causing SARS.
Reuters contributed to this report.
