Emirati companies have announced their intention to introduce a new testing technology for the “emerging corona” virus that causes Covid-19 disease to the Gulf countries and the Middle East, which is characterized by its ability to detect infection with the virus at its inception by 100 percent, and to detect the mutated strain of the virus (delta) by 99.4 percent.
Sheikh Sultan bin Saud Al Mualla, CEO of the UAE company 'Cooper Diagnostics', said that the origin of the technology, which bears the name 'CRISPR', was presented by French researchers Emmanuel Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna as a global technology for detecting DNA in diagnostics in general, knowing that the two researchers obtained He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year in DNA technology, and later the diagnosis of the “Corona” virus was invented.
Al-Mualla added to reporters, Saturday, that “CRISPR” technology obtained an emergency use license from the US Food and Drug Administration because it is characterized by 100 percent accuracy and sensitivity in detecting the coronavirus during the first stage of infection, which contributes to accurate diagnosis and improving the level of health care and treatment of the infected. Noting that it also obtained the emergency license from the UAE Ministry of Health and Community Protection.
He also drew attention to the fact that the tests conducted on the technology showed its success in detecting the Indian “delta” strain of the “Corona” virus by 99.4 percent.
He continued, saying that the adoption of this technology in the UAE, as an emergency use, comes as a continuation of the state's approach to developing health care services in an optimal way, in order to ensure that the 'Corona' pandemic is addressed.
For his part, Dr. Amin Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Health Regulatory Sector at the UAE Ministry of Health, confirmed that the ministry is keen to introduce and include the best international technologies in its services in the country, and that it was keen to issue a license for emergency use of “CRISPR” technology upon receiving the file, along with a license to use Emergency from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Zahid Al-Sabti, CEO and Managing Director of the UAE 'Magenta' company, which is the distributor of 'CRISPR' examination in the UAE, said that the new technology represents a quantum leap in the accuracy of detecting the 'Corona' virus, noting that it greatly outperforms in terms of 100% certainty. Percent in detecting the virus, as well as in terms of speed of obtaining results, allowing it to be relied upon in airports, schools and other places of importance.
He pointed out that early detection of the virus in the first stage of infection contributes to accelerating the isolation of the infected and those in contact with them and controlling the infection, which positively and significantly affects the control of the pandemic.
He explained that the test is based on taking a swab from the nose, and then the test is performed on a single molecule of DNA targets, to detect the presence of the virus or not.