Rapid and less intrusive breath tests for coronavirus will be launched in the Netherlands, said local health officials.
As of this week, test facilities in Amsterdam have started using the so-called SpiroNose, a machine that works similarly to an alcohol breath test. A person simply breathes on the machine, which can detect a coronavirus infection in minutes, Reuters reported.
The machine is more reliable for detecting a negative test, said Mariken van der Lubben, an infectious disease specialist at Amsterdam’s municipal health services.
“If the test is negative, it is a very reliable result and you can go,” said Van der Lubben, noting that a positive test should be followed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Comparing the two will help researchers better understand whether the machine can distinguish between different types of viruses.
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“It changes the game if you can make a quick diagnosis or rule out the infection in a minute,” Belgian virologist Marc Van Rans told Reuters. He noted that more data is needed before the machine becomes the “future” in testing for COVID-19 infections.
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Still, Dutch health officials have ordered some 1,800 SpiroNose machines for use at various test facilities across the country soon. The machine, created by Breathomix, a Dutch healthcare technology company, was originally designed to detect asthma and lung cancer, according to Reuters. “In the past few months, we have measured thousands of patients with corona and people who do not have a corona, so we know the average profile of corona breathing and people without a corona,” Breathomix executive Rianne de Vries told the news service.
In the United States, researchers at the University of Miami are working on a similar breathalyzer that they hope will be able to detect a coronavirus infection in less than a minute.