The Adeno Detector is a new device intended to allow ophthalmologists to rapidly detect whether conjunctivitis is viral (which typically clears up in 1-2 weeks without treatment), or bacterial (and thus requires antibiotics for treatment).  The device should thus decrease the incidence of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

Here’s how the device works: the physician extracts tear fluid from a patient’s eye and inserts the fluid into a chemical solution. Within 10 minutes a negative (bacterial) or positive (viral) diagnosis will appear for one of the 54 strains of the adenovirus that causes conjunctivitis.

The device is set to commence clinical trials this fall to determine how well it can reduce faulty diagnoses.

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