A new study, ‘Sensitive poliovirus detection using nested PCR and nanopore sequencing: a prospective validation study’, published today (17 August 2023) in Nature Microbiology, proves that using DDNS to detect polio outbreaks can save public health authorities crucial time and money.
This research was jointly conducted by researchers at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa who implemented DDNS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the detection of polio outbreaks in collaboration with the MHRA, Imperial College London, the University of Edinburgh and various laboratories of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Polio Laboratory Network (GPLN), with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This is the first time that this type of scientific technique has been used to detect polio. Similar techniques have previously been used to detect COVID-19, Ebola, measles and monkeypox.
