Amidst COVID, Breathonix, Singapore’s start-up has developed a new tool for screening Covid-19 infection which can analyse people’s breath to determine whether they are covid positive or not within one minute. The company has carried out clinical trials for the same achieving atleast 90% accuracy after screening participants on site for 60 seconds. The test could be as easy as just breathing into a tube. The test is based on mass spectrometry which analyses the many volatile organic compounds that people exhale with every breath in order to establish a specific signal among those with an active corona infection.
The pilot study was conducted on 180 people, showing an overall specificity of 95% and sensitivity of 93%. The company still feels the need to conduct more trials to improve and validate the accuracy of their device. They intend to make the device commercially available in the next couple of months for mass screening at places like hotels, airports, transportation hubs and sports venues. The estimated price of this test could be around $ 20 each.
SOURCE: Indianexpress.com
