The dipstick dye immunoassay kit, developed by Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases in east China, has been certified by the State Food and Drug Administration and is to be approved for mass production.

    The new diagnosis involved mixing a blood sample with a reagent on a test paper, giving a positive result if a certain color belt appeared, said Zhu Yinchang, head of the project.

    He said the tests could identify 95.97 percent of people infected with the parasitic disease and more than 96 percent who were not infected at a cost of just 30 U.S. cents each.

    Traditional stool testing identified less than 50 percent of people infected and required sophisticated medical instruments, skilled personnel and several hours to three days of analysis.

    Zhu said the new test took just five to ten minutes under normal temperature conditions and was cheap enough for massing testing. The test had helped to identify some two million cases in the trial period in China.

    He said the new method could be used to diagnose the pandemic-type schistosomiasis Japonica in China, the mekongi type in southeast Asia and the mansoni type in Africa.

    Zhu, who owns intellectual property right of the invention and registered its patent last year, said the World Health Organization would hopefully order the tests for schistosomiasis-hit areas in the near future.

    China has 12 high-prevalence provinces and regions south of the Yangtze River drainage area. Records of the disease, which causes blood loss and tissue damage, date back more than 2,100 years.

    Schistosomiasis affects 74 countries and regions, most of them underdeveloped, with approximately 200 million people infected. Enditem