Corgenix and Fio connect rapid Ebola test to the cloud

Corgenix Medical Corporation and Fio Corporation are working together to integrate two technological advances to help end the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Combining the companies’ technologies will give suspected Ebola patients in remote, resource-poor settings access to automated test results.

Fio is adapting its Deki Reader to work with the Corgenix ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test for the Ebola virus, which recently received Emergency Use Authorization from the US FDA. The rapid test, which can detect the Ebola virus in minutes, has been backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Paul G Allen Family Foundation.

Additional Gates Foundation funding will enable the Fio device to analyse the test results, which will be immediately transmitted to the data system Fionet. The mobile device will therefore capture vital information that is currently missed or delayed.

“This collaboration makes testing more accessible to those at risk and data more readily available to those managing the outbreak, a combination that the Gates Foundation identified and mobilised,” said Fio Chairman and CEO Dr Michael M Greenberg. “The resulting technology will expand the capability to fight Ebola now and strengthen national health systems beyond the current crisis.”

Corgenix President and CEO Douglass Simpson described Fio’s data collection and management as “critical to the success of rapid testing”. The instant traceability of infected or potentially infected individuals is key to containing the spread of the Ebola virus and other highly contagious diseases.

Both companies will continue to work together to integrate the two technologies for decentralised Ebola virus testing throughout West Africa. The collaboration will also enable health systems to better manage future outbreaks as well as other infectious diseases in the region, with the Deki Reader currently being adapted for use with the Corgenix ReLASV Antigen Rapid Test for the Lassa virus.