Scientists in Singapore, Japan co-develop test kit that can detect bird flu in hours

Scientists from Singapore and Japan have co-developed a bird flu test kit that can detect the virus in hours, compared to three days with conventional methods. The breakthrough with the diagnostic kit, Steadfast, could be a game changer in the fight against the global spread of bird flu. Dr Masafumi Inoue from the Diagnostics Development Hub — a national platform under A*STAR — and Dr Sebastian Maurer-Stroh from the A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute shared how the kit works and whether it can detect all the existing strains of the avian flu.