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Singapore Gives Green Signal To COVID Breath Test, Will Deliver Results In One Minute
|The test works like a standard breathalyzer test where a person blows into the one-sided valve to create a 'breath signature' which is then analysed to detect the virus.
Detection of COVID-19 would be possible with a breath test that has been designed to provide the results in one minute. The breath-analysis test was approved in Singapore.
Called the 'BreFence Go COVID-19' breath test system, it has been developed by Breathonix, a spin-off company of the National University of Singapore (NUS), reported Bloomberg.
A spin-off company is when an existing organisation separates a part of its section and creates a new business.
The Mechanism
According to reports, it works like a standard breathalyzer test where a person blows into the one-sided valve (to prevent cross-contamination) to create a 'breath signature'.
The test is designed to identify volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in an individual's exhaled breath. VOCs are produced by biochemical reactions in the human cell. As the VOCs signature (breath signature) of a healthy person's breath differs from an ill person, any change in the organic compounds would be considered markers for diseases such as COVID-19, reported Medical Device Network.
A machine learning software assesses the VOCs biomarkers and delivers results within 60 seconds.