Blood test to identify cause of fever in children in the works

Unnecessary antibiotic use could be cut down with the new, fast test as children are usually started on one when they have a fever until tests – that can currently take three or more days to complete – confirm their illness. — PA Wire/dpa

A blood test that could help diagnose the cause of a child's fever in under an hour has been branded "transformative" by researchers.

The majority of current diagnostic tests focus on picking up pathogens and can take 72 hours or more to provide results.