A new method for testing patients to ascertain whether or not they have the Covid-19 Coronavirus by using a breathing device is being developed in Israel by Next-Gen and  Scentech Medical company. The new system has been given the approval to be implemented on live patients in Meir Hospital effective immediately. The new utilizes a device similar to a breathalyzer and could potentially diagnose the coronavirus in under a minute.

After having been approved by the Institutional Review Board, otherwise known as the Helsinki Committee, the device is to begin testing in the Kfar Saba hospital.

Using a similar method to that of the breathalyzer, patients breath into the device, which should be able to distinguish between thousands of gas compounds in the breath, isolating the compounds associated with the virus.

“A quick and simple diagnostic test can be done anywhere, from airports, hotels, tourist sites, and soccer stadiums,” said Shulam Lapidot, chairman of Next-Gen. “Our success will help the community and the economy get back to full activity and to their normal routines as quickly as possible.”

A spokesperson for Scentech added: “Our technology provides a solution for highly accurate breath analysis in real-time and at the Point of Care. Identifying infectious diseases in their early stages can be critical in preventing the spread of an epidemic like the Coronavirus.”

Among the benefits that could be seen from utilizing such technology are being able to diagnose patients who are asymptomatic, no longer relying upon swabs and possessing kits that have been in short supply since the virus took hold in Israel, and freeing up labs throughout Israel from continuous testing of samples for the virus. Additionally, as the number of false-positive results in Israel rises, it is the hope of the creators that this technology will negate the need for manual results in labs and thus lower the possibility of receiving a false-positive result.

Furthermore, the new breathing device will be able to give a diagnosis in minutes in comparison to the current method which takes up to two days.

Another benefit of the new method is the device’s ability to identify the virus’s genetic ‘fingerprint.’ With this ability, the genetic fingerprint of the next virus with the potential to cause a pandemic could be detected before it ever causes damage.

“It’s a revolutionary technology which places the diagnostic field at the early stages of identifying various states of sicknesses, thus contributing to the quality of treatment, reducing the damage caused by said sicknesses, and enabling high chances of recovery,” said Dr. Udi Cantor, the Medical Director of Scentech.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)