Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health and Boston Children’s Hospital have shown that a new rapid diagnostic test performed at bedside was as sensitive as conventional methods, which take days to complete — time that communities cannot afford.

The results of the trial of the rapid Ebola diagnostic test are published in The Lancet.

The new rapid diagnostic test, developed by Corgenix, is called the ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test kit, which can be done at the bedside with a drop of blood. A rapid test puts fewer people at risk of infection, speeds diagnosis, and enables health care workers to enact treatment and isolation measures.

Conventional test requires that blood be drawn and sent to a lab for analysis. Logistical issues involved in shipping highly infectious disease samples involve time and risks health care workers in being in contact with highly infectious blood samples. These obstacles and delays prevent timely diagnosis and treatment, and also result in individuals without Ebola being admitted to holding units where they may become infected with the virus, the researchers said.

“Simplifying the process and speeding up diagnosis could have a major impact,” said Nira Pollock, senior author of the paper and HMS assistant professor of medicine and associate medical director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital said in a press release.

While the West African Ebola epidemic has slowed since its height last fall, the crisis continues. Liberia was victorious in containing the virus and was declared Ebola free in May. Hopes for neighboring Guinea and Sierra have been dashed, with citizens continuing to be diagnosed. There were still 24 confirmed cases of Ebola reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone in the week ending June 14.

Sierra Leone’s National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) told the AFP news agency that three cases had emerged in the east-end slum of Magazine Wharf – three weeks after the last known infections in Freetown. The affected area is overcrowded and poor sanitation and has high rates of malaria and cholera.

The World Health Organization had already issued a warning that the decrease in Ebola infections have plateaued in Guinea and Sierra Leone, raising serious concerns of future outbreaks and a resurgence of the epidemic.

The field trial took place at two treatment centers in Sierra Leone, where 106 patients suspected of having Ebola were tested using the rapid diagnostic test and also standard laboratory testing. The rapid test was able to detect Ebola and all patients who had tested positive in the laboratory method. Both tests failed to diagnosis in patients with low levels of the virus.

Researchers said further study is needed to determine how well the new rapid diagnostic test will perform in patients still in the early stages of the Ebola virus. The study also revealed that standard laboratory testing is an imperfect diagnostic method.

The researchers observed that it was essential to study the test in the field to see whether it worked in the challenging conditions that clinicians face in rural clinics and in Ebola treatment units, as found in Sierra Leone.

“We’re talking about a truly extreme environment here,” said study co-author Megan Murray, HMS professor of global health and social medicine and director of research at Partners In Health.

The next step is in the hands of public health and regulatory authorities in each of the affected West African countries, who must decide how the test would be used in clinical care, taking into account guidance from WHO and FDA.