The Cambridge hospital is one of the first in the UK to receive a machine that can diagnose Coronavirus in less than 90 minutes.
The Samba II machine – dubbed a ‘game changer’ – has been developed by a Cambridge-based research company. It speeds up the diagnosis of COVID-19 from 24 hours to just ninety minutes and means that healthcare workers can be more easily screened.
Ten of these machines have been acquired by Addenbrooke’s – and more will be available to other hospitals across the UK.
The device looks for microscopic pieces of genetic material belonging to the virus before amplifying it and then using it to detect an infection.
It is far quicker than existing tests, some of which look for antigens - the components of a virus to which antibodies bind - or antibodies, which show that an individual is currently or was previously infected.
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