PI and Lumos work with Victorian Government to pilot FebriDx as acute respiratory infection patient triage tool in response to COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and potential impact of the impending flu season, Lumos Diagnostics, a Planet Innovation company, is working with the Victorian Government to demonstrate the benefits and impact that the FebriDx^® test may deliver as an acute respiratory infection (ARI) patient triage tool in the Australian healthcare system.

Any GPs, emergency departments or other healthcare professionals interested in participating in this free pilot should register their interest on our FebriDx pilot webpage.

FebriDx is a 10-minute point-of-care fingerstick test that helps differentiate viral infections that may necessitate isolation, from bacterial infections that require antibiotic therapy.

By enabling a rapid diagnostic triage at the initial visit or screening stage, the FebriDx test can assist health professionals with decision-making and may thereby help:

• identify those patients that should undergo further pathogen specific testing (e.g. Coronavirus, Flu A/B) when the FebriDx result is positive for viral infection
• limit unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions that lead to antibiotic resistance when the FebriDx result is negative for bacterial infection

The test works by simultaneously detecting Myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) directly from peripheral whole blood. MxA is an intracellular protein that becomes elevated in the presence of acute viral infection and CRP is an acute-phase inflammatory protein that is elevated in the presence of clinically significant infection.

Clinical performance from two prospective multi-center US clinical trials demonstrate the FebriDx test’s high accuracy and 97-99% negative predictive value to exclude a bacterial infection.^1,2

In a United Kingdom outcome study, FebriDx was shown to alter clinical management decisions in 48% of patients tested and reduced unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions by 80%³.

The FebriDx test is CE-marked and included on the ARTG (Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods). It is commercially available in Europe, Canada, Australia and various other countries.

References

1. Shapiro, N.I., Self, W.H., Rosen, J., Sharp, S.C., Filbin, M.R., Hou, P.C., Parekh, A.D., Kurz, M.C. and Sambursky, R. ‘A prospective, multi-centre US clinical trial to determine accuracy of FebriDx point-of-care testing for acute upper respiratory infections with and without a confirmed fever’, Annals of Medicine, 18 May 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2018.1474002
2. Self, W.H., Rosen, J., Sharp S.C., Filbin, M.R., Hou, P.C. et al. ‘Diagnostic Accuracy of FebriDx: A Rapid Test to Detect Immune Responses to Viral and Bacterial Upper Respiratory Infections’, Clin. Med. vol 6, iss. 94, 2017. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm6100094
3. Davidson, M. ‘FebriDx point-of-care testing to guide antibiotic therapy for acute respiratory tract infection in UK primary care: a retrospective outcome analysis’, Journal of Infectious Diseases & Preventative Medicine, vol. 5, issue 3, 24 Aug 2017. https://doi.org/10.4172/2329-8731.1000165