Imperial partners with laboratory in DR Congo for Rapid Polio detection

Posted date: 26 May 2022

Late detection of poliovirus transmission is one of the greatest risks to polio eradication. Imperial developed a method for rapid detection of polio.

Imperial's Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group (VERG) is based at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the team developed a method for the direct detection of poliovirus in stool samples and environmental surveillance samples. This novel method, published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, uses next-generation sequencing offering a real opportunity to reduce outbreak response time. 

Not only significantly reducing laboratory testing time, this method allows for on-site sequencing. Delays with international transport of samples are avoided and sample to outcome is reduced to days instead of weeks.

Reference Link:https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/236294/imperial-partners-with-laboratory-dr-congo/

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