<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">A new technology for diagnosing and quantifying a wide
variety of infectious diseases has been introduced at Aga Khan University
Hospital. Molecular testing, a technique used to analyse the specifics of a patient
and their disease offers the prospect of personalised medicine which is a major
advancement in diagnosis capability for clinical laboratories.</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">This technology is suitable for diagnosing infectious
diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, Herpes viruses, Dengue, TB, and many
others, giving results that are more timely and accurate than before.</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Rodney Adam, a Professor at Aga Khan University Hospital’s
Pathology Department in charge of Molecular testing, said, “Molecular
technology has changed the way clinical laboratories identify and manage many
infectious diseases. For organisms, or
viruses that are difficult to grow in the laboratory, or grow slowly, molecular
testing provides a quick way of obtaining an accurate diagnosis, which is
frequently available within a day. Viruses that may take weeks to grow in a
specialised laboratory can now be identified the same day through molecular
testing.”</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">“In order for the Hospital to carry out a full range of
molecular tests, we have installed three new machines in the Pathology
Department. The technique is also used to diagnose and monitor diseases, detect
risks, and decide which therapies will work best for individual patients during
treatment.”</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">“In addition to infectious diseases diagnosis, we have also
introduced a test used to measure the response to treatment in a patient with
cancer of the blood and bone marrow (chronic myelogeneous leukemia).”</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Professor Adam further noted that plans were underway to
introduce additional molecular tests in the future. These will include tests for diagnosing
infectious diseases such as respiratory viral and bacterial infections as well
as intestinal infections.</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">“We also plan to introduce molecular tests for a variety of
cancers to the excellent capacity already present in the laboratory for tumour
diagnosis and classification.” he added.</span><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><br style="font-size: 14.6667px;"/><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">
The hospital's laboratory is open every day of
the week and runs for 24 hours each day.
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