Turkish scientists and doctor develop rapid diagnostic tests for Covid-19

A team of scientists and a doctor in Turkey have developed diagnostic kits for Covid-19 that detect the virus within ten or 15 seconds with increased efficacy rates.

Turkish scientists at Bilkent University's National Nanotechnology Research Center have developed a nanotechnology-based system that diagnoses Covid-19 in 10 seconds with 99 percent reliability without taking intrusive swab tests.

The high-technology Turkish product named Diagnovir is expected to replace PCR tests.

“A method that yields results only in seconds and can replace PCR has been developed. If positive, it yields the result immediately. When negative, it takes a little more time with the controls,” Bilkent University's Rector Abdullah Atalar told Anadolu Agency.

“The whole world will benefit from this technology, which belongs completely to Turkey,” he added.

The test kit can detect the virus that causes Covid-19 infection within a maximum of 10 seconds from the oral saliva sample.

Atalar drew attention on the significance of speedily diagnosing the coronavirus. “Finding out that a person is [Covid-19] positive rapidly and to quarantine them is very important to bring the pandemic under control,” he said.

He also noted that the technology has qualities that can be used for pandemics similar to coronavirus.

READ MORE: Turkish-made Covid-19 testing kits to be out soon - minister

More accurate 

A researcher, Bulend Ortac, said the study to develop a fast diagnostic system and kit has been going on for seven months.

Ortac said: “We achieved positive results in phase 2 studies. We observed that the tests we carried out both in laboratory and hospitals on coronavirus patients yielded accurate results with a vast majority.”

“While PCR has a high margin of error and yields results two to three days into the illness, our system yields results in the early stages of the illness in seconds. Besides, the reliability rate is very high, 99 percent,” he said.

Ortac said they expect to start mass producing the product and make it available for the users in two months.

“Thus, it will contribute to bringing the pandemic under control and ease the social life to a considerable extent,” he said.

It was also noted that the test is rather inexpensive compared to PCR, which will make more tests available for people both in Turkey and the world.

Urine kit to detect Covid-19

Turkish physical therapy and rehabilitation specialist has developed a urine kit to detect the Covid-19 in 15 seconds.

Dr Mehmet Serhan Kurtulmus said he developed the kit in which a special reactant is used to detect parts specific to the virus that causes Covid-19.

Kurtulmus said he started work on the kit in March, when the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Turkey, and finished in November.

He said the kit was approved by several local medical institutions and had been licensed by the country's Health Ministry.

Emphasising that the kit's accuracy was found to be higher than existing ones, Kurtulmus said the study was published in an international clinical journal.

"Our purpose in making this test is to ensure that people are scanned for Covid-19 in the fastest and most accurate way," he said, adding that the kit was the first urine test kit capable of detecting the virus.