15-min test that tells GP if you need antibiotics

A 15-MINUTE blood test could slash the number of unnecessary antibiotics given to patients by 80 per cent.

Doctors in England are already trialling the £12 finger-prick test, which tells a GP whether a patient truly needs antibiotics for a chest complaint.

The test, called FebriDx, changed a GP’s decision in 48 per cent of cases, a pilot study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases & Preventive Medicine found.

And it cut the number of unnecessary prescriptions given for respiratory problems by 80 per cent, according to the trial at a practice in Dron- field, Derbyshire. The test works by placing a spot of blood on a card. Within 15 minutes, lines appear on a display panel, indicating whether a virus or bacterial infection is present.

The card tracks the levels of two proteins – C-reactive protein, a marker of bacterial infection, and myxovirus resistance protein A, which appears when there is a viral infection.

RPS Diagnostics, the US firm which makes the test, will this week announce a major push to get the product into GP practices across the UK. A similar scheme is being tested by Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group which serves 235,000 patients.

If rolled out nationally such tests could prove a badly needed tool in the battle against superbugs.