On March 19, 2015, MeMed, Ltd. (http://www.me-med.com/), headquartered in Israel, announced publication of the results of a large multicenter prospective clinical study that validates the ability of the company’s ImmunoXpert™ in-vitro diagnostic blood test to determine whether a patient has an acute bacterial or viral infection. The study enrolled more than 1,000 patients and the results were published online on March 18, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. The article is titled “A Novel Host-Proteome Signature for Distinguishing between Acute Bacterial and Viral Infections.” Unlike most infectious disease diagnostics that rely on direct pathogen detection, MeMed’s assay decodes the body's immune response to accurately characterize the cause of the infection. Bacterial and viral infections are often clinically indistinguishable, leading to antibiotic overuse and contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance, which the World Health Organization says is approaching crisis proportions. Paradoxically, the inability to rapidly differentiate infections also results in the underuse of antibiotics, estimated to occur in 20-40% of all bacterial infections, putting patients at risk of complications and increasing healthcare costs. MeMed researchers developed the ImmunoXpert test to accurately distinguish between bacterial and viral infections, with the goal of improving patient management by providing physicians with information that enables them to reduce both the overuse and underuse of antibiotics. Eran Eden, Ph.D., the CEO of MeMed, noted, "Antibiotic misuse is a pressing public health concern, with devastating healthcare and economic consequences. Rapid, accurate, and actionable diagnostic tools are an important part of the solution because they can aid physicians in making better informed treatment decisions.Login Or Register To Read Full Story