sg is small but we still help to protect the mighty US 7th
fleet.
A Singapore bioscience firm has set up the first on-board avian
flu testing laboratories on the US Seventh Fleet's flagship and an
aircraft carrier, the company confirmed Monday.
31 July 2006
Veredus Laboratories and the United States Navys Seventh Fleet
jointly setup
Worlds First Ship-based Avian Flu Testing Laboratory.
Singapore, July 31, 2006 - Veredus Laboratories Pte Ltd today
announced that they have teamed
up with the U.S. Navys Seventh Fleet to setup ship-based avian flu
testing laboratories.
U.S. Seventh Fleet Surgeon, Capt. Charles Baxter, together with Dr.
Rosemary Tan, CEO of
Veredus Laboratories, have evaluated the medical laboratory
capabilities on board a U.S. Navy
afloat unit and determined that rapid testing for avian bird flu
(H5N1) can be performed to
internationally recognized standard, ultimately saving lives. Dr.
Tan has also conducted training
sessions for the Seventh Fleet command ship USS Blue Ridges
medical department on
laboratory procedures dealing with the H5N1 virus.
The ship-based avian flu testing laboratories will be using
Veredus avian flu H5N1 kit, which
has been developed and tested over the last few years. It is used
to detect the pathogen as it is able
to detect minute amount of the RNA of the Avian Flu virus in
infected humans or animals. This
highly specific and accurate test will give the laboratories the
capability to rapidly identify the
H5N1 virus within hours.
The lab results and using the fleet response kits will allow the
unit to perform the necessary
decontamination and disinfection procedures in the event of an
on-board infection to provide
protection to unaffected crew members and prevent any possible
spread of the virus into a port.
U.S. Seventh Fleet Surgeon Capt. Baxter added, This laboratory
test will help the ships overall
medical readiness and allow Seventh Fleet units to continue its
mission with minimal operational
impact.
Having the ability to rapidly test and identify individuals
infected with the H5N1 virus
will allow us to contain the spread of the virus in infected
persons and allow us to focus our
medical resources more efficiently. With limited supplies of
Tamiflu and no proven avian flu
vaccine, having this capability is paramount to Force Health
Protection and will be critical in an
actual pandemic.
Currently the gold standard to confirm the H5N1 infection is by
viral culture. This process takes
approximately 10 days once the specimen is received at a reference
laboratory. There are also a
limited number of certified viral culture labs available worldwide.
In a pandemic these labs
would quickly become overwhelmed and unable to meet regional
demands. That could
significantly affect morbidity and mortality rates, said Dr. Tan.
Molecular DNA analysis,
embodied in this H5N1 afloat test kit, is quickly becoming accepted
as a very specific, sensitive
and accurate detection method in viral infection. This kit has been
tested in parallel with viral
cultures of Avian Flu cases in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam with
excellent results.
Exploit Technologies is pleased that Veredus is able to leverage
on world class research from
A*STAR researchers to develop a robust solution to address a global
need to rapidly detect avian
flu, said Mr. Boon Swan Foo, Managing Director of A*STAR and
Executive Chairman of
Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd. We are proud that Veredus is able to
develop an afloat detection
test for the U.S. Navy.
As the avian flu viruses are constantly mutating and changing, our
double-checking test means
that we can provide a high degree of confidence and comfort to our
end users when they use our
tests, said Chua Chee Min, Managing Director of Veredus
Laboratories. We are pleased to
http://www.vereduslabs.com/news.html23.07.2006
2.Avian flu testing labs on US navy ships,Singapore |
July 31, 2006
