STimes today 31.07.2006 H5 reported Sg products help
to protect
Flag ship of 7th Fleet Blue Ridge
and CV kitty Hawk
The United States Navy's Seventh Fleet and Veredus
Laboratories jointly setup world's first ship-based avian flu
testing laboratory. 23.07.2006
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
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..
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