Hospital to offer test that cuts wait for identifying secondary infection in COVID-19 patients - The Pharmaceutical Journal
COVID-19 patients with secondary infections could get the right antibiotics more quickly, following the roll out of a rapid 24-hour test at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust during winter 2021. The new clinical service was implemented after researchers at the trust evaluated the rapid test between 11 April and 15 June 2020 using respiratory samples from 34 COVID-19 patients with secondary infections across seven of the trust's intensive care units (ICUs). According to the research paper, published in Genome Medicine on 17 November 2021, the test uses DNA sequencing to identify all bacterial and fungal pathogens in samples from patients' lungs, as well as any antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes present. Results from the study demonstrated that the test "provided bacterial and fungal identification and accurate AMR prediction within an 8-[hour] laboratory workflow", the paper said, adding that the test was 92% sensitive and 82% specific "for bacte...