Researchers in Singapore are currently developing a chip that can almost instantaneously detect whether or not a person has flu, SARS, dengue fever, and other respiratory illnesses. The respiratory pathogens detection chip is roughly the same size as a 50-cent-coin. To the use the chip doctors simply place a couple of drops of sputum or nasal fluid from the patient onto it. The government-run Genome Institute of Singapore says that it hopes to launch the chip as early as January 2004. The institute also says that it is working with a major US medical devices company to test the effectiveness of the chip.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 6th October 2003.
