Handy diagnosis of chemical and biological warfare agents

A spin off company based on research from The University of Western Australia has developed a new method of assisting in the rapid diagnosis of chemical and biological warfare agents.

A diagnosis program - Biosafe - has been developed by the Western Australian-based research company Paradigm Diagnostics Limited (PDL) in response to requests from medical and other groups who are not trained or equipped to deal with these often new and rare deadly agents.

PDL's Biosafe computer program provides the technology to help diagnose these agents not only in hospitals and surgeries, but also in the field. The Head of Research at PDL, Dr Stuart Bunt, who is based at The University of Western Australia's School of Anatomy and Human Biology, says the ever-present threat of chemical and biological attacks has given rise to the urgent need for a means of detecting these agents.

"While resources such as the Internet can be used to search for details in situations where the chemical agent is known, Biosafe's advantage is that it can help identify an unknown chemical agent.

"Biosafe presents the user with a series of questions regarding symptoms of the patient," Dr Bunt said. "Once the user has entered the patient's symptoms Biosafe calculates the likelihood of the exposure to an agent. It provides a quick and effective method that can be used to assist those in authority to identify potentially threatening situations.

"The program is designed to be useful for the skilled medical professional but user friendly enough to be used by emergency services or military personnel with the minimum of knowledge or training", he said.

Dr Bunt said he believed the product had significant export marketing potential, with applications in the military and emergency services sector, as well as for doctors and allied health workers.

He said Biosafe would be particularly useful in remote or undeveloped areas where expert help was not readily available. As well as personal computer-based versions, a pocket PC version will be ready later this year.

Item provided courtesy of The University of Western Australia