End of the infection dilemma

• Bactfast and Fungifast from Credence Genomics

Baterial cell culture

DNA

Fungal meningitis

Bacterial cell

Mrs. Fernando was scheduled for amputation the following Thursday 16 April.  In the past five years, she had been in and out of hospital for chronic infection for which the cause was unknown. She had been through various courses of IV antibiotics and still was not responding. The biggest challenge was that every single culture was mixed and there was a constant challenge to find the causative organism. 

The most recent statistical data shows that annually over 300,000 patients are hospitalised due to infection and the related morbidity and mortality has been gradually increasing due to the accumulated effects of hospital acquired infections and overcrowding in wards. One of the challenges that conventional testing brings is that sensitivity of the tests are relatively low, averaging about 60%. Hence the clinician still has to make a call on whether to accept the output of the test or run another validation. 

The next challenge is the speed of a provisional response, which conventionally takes two days, with a further confirmation in 7 to 14 days depending on the organism and several other factors.

“What does this mean in today’s day when technology has changed almost every sphere of our life? Credence Genomics has broken through with an innovative test, which on any sample can find all known types of bacteria or fungi,” says Credence Genomics Director Dr. Vaz Gnanam. “The test is able to provisionally give a confirmation of infection within 12 hours along with a genus and species identification within 48 hours, making it the fastest most precise test available globally.  The technology developed by the innovative team at Credence has challenged the most chronic and resistant infectious cases at both government institutions and private health sector organisations, working closely with this disruptive technology.” 

How does the team at Credence do this? Credence Director Raj Omprasadam explained, “The team utilises next generation sequencing and identifies bacteria and fungi from any biological, environmental or industrial sample. They can identify the entire spectrum of known bacteria and fungi in one test. This is a culture independent test with a 99.7 % accuracy and sensitivity.” 

While Mrs. Fernando was referred to Credence Genomics by her doctor, there are situations where patients have found Credence Genomics and walked in for a consultation. 

“Mrs. Mohammed was one such case.  She came to us in desperation having undergone so many treatment regimens, worried that her fingers were going to be amputated within a few days. She was quite upset as a few of her toes had just been amputated and now she was scheduled for surgery to amputate the fingers of her right hand. She wondered how she would manage her day-to-day chores. She knew this was an infection, but the issue was that no one was able to tell her exactly what the infection was. She arrived at Credence Genomics in the hope that somehow she could save her fingers. Fortunately for her, she came to the right place,” said Dr. Gnanam.  

In acknowledgment of their advanced approached to infectious diseases, Credence has received the support of many of the top clinicians who have applied the test to acute and chronic infections. Mrs. Fernando was one of those patients who used Bactfast because her doctor believed in the application of the technology. This allowed Mrs. Fernando to go home, treated accurately for her infection and without an amputation. “Mrs. Mohammed did her own research and came to us. Once we found out what caused her infection, we referred her to a clinician. She saved her fingers.”

The advantage of a disruptive technology such as this is, it not only saves lives and limbs but also increases the quality of life for all your loved ones. 

Call Credence Genomics on 0710 38 0011 for more information.