Host immune response; learning from the body
While we normally do not think about it, the host immune response is actually a great way of figuring out whether a person has a bacterial infection or a viral infection. Why? Because while the external or major symptoms between a viral or bacterial infection appear similar, internal changes are much easier to read through important markers produced by the auto-immune system. This is where host immune response testing is exceptionally useful. A simple and fast blood test using ELISA technology allows anyone within a few minutes to figure out if the patient has a virus or bacterial infection. As such we may soon see host immune response testing conducted in parallel to doctors’ visits to ensure the doctor provides the right antibiotics to patients.
How host immune response testing works
There are three main auto-immune markers that are produced when an infection occurs.
Why should you be adopting host immune response testing?
We have moved into the age of the pandemic and the age of the superbug. This means that mis-diagnosis can cause serious challenges not just for the patient but also the medical facility and society as a whole. So, what is the real issue and should we stop the provisioning of medication? No, in fact medication should be freely given as required, and that is the key point. Each patient must be given the correct medication and dosage to stop resistant pathogens from being created. This type of mutation only occurs if an ineffective solution is exposed to the pathogen.
So, to stop this host immune response needs to be assessed to find out what is ailing the patient; only through using the correct medication you get synergistic results of reducing the potential to expose a pathogen to an ineffective solution, allowing it to mutate and quickly help the patient recover.
Imagine that your patient waiting list is a queue and if you process each patient successfully, they spend little time needing help and the queue goes down by one person at a time. This is what is needed in all health care facilities for a lean effective service. However, if host immune response testing is not used then during the treatment process a patient may be put back into the queue either in front or at the back of it, increasing the number of patients that need to be seen and dramatically impacting the efficacy of the establishment. This plus the cost of an ineffective prescription compounds over time making the situation much worse.
Through increasing the amount of contact time and the amount needed to cover the prescription financial waste can increase quickly due to poor analytical practices. Furthermore, as each patient is ill for longer it is more than likely that secondary health issues arrive and these can be more detrimental for the patient and for the health care provided.
The Future
It is highly likely that new ELISA tests that already utilize a cartridge system and fast AI processing widespread for host immune response testing due to its small footprint, low cost and speed; as such there is no need not to use such processes to reduce queue lists and at a negligible outlay expense. As such it can be a powerful tool to be used in daily diagnosis and treatment of pathogens through a validating process. Further afield it may also be a means of reducing a medical facilities patient liability and lawsuit claims due to the latest best practices being used to provide treatments in an informed decision-making process.
