Researchers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities and hospitals across Ireland, France, Finland and the United Kingdom work in a new project aimed at finding a test that would reduce the diagnosis time of respiratory tract infections from days to hours, so that the appropriate treatments can be administered as early as possible.

The project titled RID-RTI ('Rapid Identification of Respiratory Tract Infections'), that brings together researchers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities and hospitals across Ireland, France, Finland and the United Kingdom and is supported by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), works for finding to deliver a cost-effective tool for the speedy diagnosis of infections such as pneumonia.

These diagnostic products will be based on a novel 'sample-in, result-out' technology platform. The aim is to come up with a test that would reduce the diagnosis time of respiratory tract infections from days to hours, so that the appropriate treatments can be administered as early as possible, giving patients the best possible chance of a swift recovery.

Respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia, are amongst the top four major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The RID-RTI project hopes to meet the need for rapid molecular diagnostics tests that can identify a large range of microorganisms and antibiotic resistances rapidly and accurately so that appropriate therapy can be started straight away.