Title : The 15-minute test that tells a GP if you need antibiotics
link : The 15-minute test that tells a GP if you need antibiotics
The 15-minute test that tells a GP if you need antibiotics
- Doctors in England are already trialling the £12 FebriDx finger-prick test
- A pilot study found the test changed a GP's decision in 48 per cent of cases
- It cut number of unnecessary prescriptions for respiratory problems by 80%
A 15-minute blood test could slash the number of unnecessary antibiotics given to patients by 80 per cent.
Doctors in Liverpool, Derbyshire and the North East are already trialling the £12 finger-prick test, which tells a GP within a quarter of an hour whether a patient truly needs antibiotics for a chest complaint.
If rolled out nationally it could prove a badly-needed tool in the NHS battle against superbugs.
The test – which identifies whether a patient is suffering from a bacterial infection or a virus while they sit in the waiting room – changed a GP's decision in 48 per cent of cases, a pilot study found.
And it cut the number of unnecessary prescriptions given for respiratory problems by 80 per cent, according to the trial at a GP practice in Dronfield, North Derbyshire.
A 15-minute blood test could slash the number of unnecessary antibiotics given to patients by 80 per cent (stock image)
Experts fear that the overuse of antibiotics is driving a superbug epidemic that will kill more people than cancer by 2050.
A quarter of all antibiotics prescriptions – 10million of the 40million given out each year - are not actually needed.
The more that antibiotics are used the more resistant bacteria become to them.
Superbugs are already breeding at a rapid rate, with increasing numbers of germs evolving to become untreatable with what were previously effective drugs.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Government's chief medical officer, last month said it is 'difficult for doctors to refuse' to give patients what they demand and warned of a 'post-antibiotic apocalypse' if the problem continues to grow.
The Government's former superbugs tsar, Lord Jim O'Neill, last year even called for GPs to be banned from prescribing any antibiotics at all by 2020 without a test proving they are needed.
His report warned that too often doctors prescribe antibiotics based on a 'guess' as to whether an infection is present, 'just in case'.
When Lord O'Neill wrote his report, no such test existed – with GPs having to wait two or three days for a lab report to confirm a bacterial infection.
But the new test, called FebriDx, cuts that wait to a matter of minutes.
Dr Miles Davidson, a GP at Stubley Medical Centre in Dronfield, trialled the FebriDx test on 21 patients complaining of acute chest infection.
The doctors made an initial diagnosis of bacterial infection in 12 of the 21 patients, and predicted a virus was causing the complaint in the other nine.
But the test showed the diagnosis was wrong in 48 per cent of cases.
Only four patients were shown to actually have an infection that would require antibiotics, one of whom was diagnosed with sepsis and rushed to hospital.
Seven patients were diagnosed with a virus – against which antibiotics are powerless – and 10 patients were shown to have no infection at all.
Dr Davidson, writing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases & Preventive Medicine, said: 'Acute respiratory tract infections are routinely managed based only on clinical symptoms and signs.
'Point-of-care diagnostic testing with the FebriDx test may help primary care GPs cost-effectively manage patients presenting with clinical evidence of an acute respiratory tract infection.
'FebriDx test results improved clinical management decisions and resulted in a significant reduction in antibiotic therapy without any subsequent testing related adverse events.'
The test works by tracking levels of two different proteins in the blood - C-reactive protein, a marker of bacterial infection, and myxovirus resistance protein A, which is appears when there is a viral infection.
Each testing pack comes with a test card, on which a tiny spot of blood is placed. Within 15 minutes lines appear on a display panel, indicating whether a virus or bacterial infection is present.
A separate study, of 370 patients in the US, found it was 92 per cent accurate for detecting bacterial infections and 84 per cent accurate for detecting a virus.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, found it was even more accurate at ruling out infections – correct 97 per cent of the time – meaning it could safely be used to rule out the use of antibiotics.
RPS Diagnostics, the US firm which makes the test will next week announce a major push to get the product into GP practices across the UK.
Dr Rob Sambursky, the medical director of FebriDx, will speak at the UK Diagnostics Summit in London on Wednesday.
He said: 'A combination of diagnostic uncertainty and both patient and parental pressures to prescribe antibiotics lead to unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and directly contribute to the growing antibiotic resistance crisis.
'What makes FebriDx unique is its ability to shift antibiotic stewardship into the outpatient setting by providing tangible results for patients within 15 minutes without any ancillary equipment.
'These rapid results facilitate patient and practitioner confidence in clinical management and therapeutic decisions that could lead to withholding antibiotic prescriptions as part of a watchful waiting strategy.'
Dame Sally last night said the development of such tests was 'critical'.
'Rapid diagnostics are critical to addressing drug resistant infections. To stop inappropriate prescribing, we need tools to determine quickly if someone has a viral or bacterial infection and whether an antibiotic is needed.
'So it is promising to see pilots being launched. But we also need to develop new treatments for humans and animals, improve surveillance across the world and get better at preventing infections before they happen.'
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, added: 'More and more evidence is emerging about the effectiveness of new point of care tests to help clinicians in their prescribing decisions, but we need to ensure that this is cost effective and efficient for surgeries if this is adopted widely.
'It is also important to note that some patients have an aversion to needles and won't want to have a 'needle prick test' done.
'We need more independent research about the practical use of these tests in UK general practice and the development of national guidelines about putting them into practice, alongside additional resource to purchase and maintain testing equipment if evidence supports their use.'
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