Development of a blood test that indicates doctor when and when antibiotics will work will certainly help curb overuse of antibiotics. Researchers have said that they are closer to develop such a kind of blood test that distinguishes between viral and bacterial respiratory infections.

Study’s lead researcher Dr. Ephraim Tsalik from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham said that diagnosis of respiratory infections help to know whether the illness is due to virus or bacteria.

By knowing the same, it can be known whether antibiotic will work or not. “Antibiotics treat bacteria, but they do not treat viruses. That's why distinguishing between these various causes of illness is very important to get the right treatment to the right patient, and to offer a prognosis for how the patient is likely to do”, affirmed Tsalik.

Tsalik said that the blood test development will solve many issues including many times, patients insist doctor to prescribe them medicine even when it is a virus and doctors also prescribe sometimes for being ‘better safe than sorry’. These factors expose patients to side effects.

Unnecessary use of antibiotics raises the risk of bacterial-resistance. In such a situation, a quick and inexpensive blood test can provide important information about sick patients, affirmed the researchers.

In the study, the researchers have developed a test to distinguish viruses from bacterial infections by assessing the working of genes in the blood. They have carried out test on 273 people with respiratory infections and 44 healthy people.

The test was found to be accurate 87% of the time in distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections. The percentage is certainly better than 78% accuracy rate of an existing test that assesses inflammation linked to illness.

“Even with that imperfect test, other studies showed that using it can reduce antibiotic use by about 40 to 50 percent compared to no testing at all”, said Tsalik.