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ABBOTT PARK, Ill., June20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Abbott announced today that it has introduced the first FDA-approved hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotyping test for patients in the United States. Abbott's fully automated RealTime HCV Genotype II test determines the specific type or strain (referred to as the genotype) of the HCV virus present in the blood of an HCV-infected individual. Genotyping the HCV virus provides physicians with important information they can use to create a personalized, targeted diagnosis and treatment path to improve clinical outcomes.

"Hepatitis C is known as the silent killer as many of the symptoms go unnoticed. When patients are identified, determining their specific genotype is important to ensuring they receive the treatment that will prove to be most effective. The introduction of this test for broad use in the U.S is a significant advancement in helping to address an important public health issue," said HIV and viral hepatitis expert, Carol Brosgart, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Global Health, University of California San Francisco.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 75 percent of adults with hepatitis C are baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965 and most of them don't know they are infected. In 2012, the CDC recommended that all baby boomers talk to their doctor and get a one-time test for HCV since this group is five times more likely to have the virus. Once a patient is diagnosed with HCV, a doctor would order a hepatitis C genotype test. The Abbott RealTime HCV Genotype II test is run on the fully automated m2000 platform, which provides laboratories substantial improvements in workflow efficiency to meet the increased demand.

"The Abbott RealTime HCV Genotype II test adds yet another test to the Abbott portfolio for a full spectrum of hepatitis C testingfrom ensuring blood supply safety and providing initial screening to enabling targeted diagnoses, identification of the right treatments, and the monitoring of response to therapies," said John Coulter, vice president, Molecular Diagnostics, Abbott. "Abbott continues to expand diagnostic testing options in the infectious disease area to benefit the healthcare system and enable doctors to improve patient care."

About Hepatitis CAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hepatitis C or HCV is primarily spread through contact with blood from an infected person. Common modes of transmission for these viruses include contaminated blood, intravenous drug use, transmission from parent to child, and sexual contact.

Acute HCV infection is a short-term illness that occurs within the first six months after someone is exposed to the virus. However, for most people, acute infection leads to chronic infection, which is a serious disease that can result in long-term health problems or even death. Today, an estimated 3.2 million persons in the United States have chronic HCV infection.

About Abbott's Commitment to Hepatitis With more than 40 years dedicated to developing and improving tests for detecting and monitoring the disease, Abbott has continued to focus on hepatitis public health issues in the United States and on a global basis. This includes developing one of the first commercial tests for detection of hepatitis B in 1972, followed by the introduction of a test for hepatitis A. Abbott also has had a long-standing global surveillance program to monitor the emergence of new viral strains.

About Abbott MolecularAbbott Molecular is a leader in molecular diagnostics the analysis of DNA and RNA at the molecular level. Abbott Molecular's tests can also detect subtle but key changes in patients' genes and chromosomes and have the potential to aid with early detection or diagnosis, can influence the selection of appropriate therapies, and may assist with monitoring of disease progression.

About AbbottAbbott is a global healthcare company devoted to improving life through the development of products and technologies that span the breadth of healthcare. With a portfolio of leading, science-based offerings in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic pharmaceuticals, Abbott serves people in more than 150 countries and employs approximately 70,000.

Visit Abbott at http://www.abbott.com and connect with us on Twitter at @AbbottNews.

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Abbott Announces New Test to Help Doctors Determine Personalized Treatment Path for Patients with Hepatitis C

FIRST ON 7: A killer virus that has already claimed the lives of four young children may not be as new to Australia as health officials claim.

After our story on aired last night, a mother contacted 7News revealing her son died from enterovirus 71, three years ago.

Sarah Williams remembers well what happened to her little boy Connor, as he went from happy and smiling, to sick in hospital.

"Pretty much from Thursday onwards he got lethargic, by Saturday he couldn't stand up properly, Ms Williams said.

By Sunday, Connor was dead, aged 18 months. Two weeks later the coroner revealed he had died from enterovirus 71.

That was in 2010, three years before health officials acknowledged EV71 had arrived in Australia.

"They didn't do enough to save my son, they just, you know 'he's got a cold, he'll be right,".

GP's describe it as hand, foot and mouth disease 'on steroids'.

"It is scary it's terrifying because this is a garden variety illness that we're used to seeing many times a day all of a sudden becoming this potential killer," resident Sunrise GP Dr Ginni Mansberg said.

It's been linked to four deaths in New South Wales since December.

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Deadly enterovirus 71 'not so new'

A new virus responsible for an outbreak of respiratory illness in the Middle East may be more deadly than SARS, according to a team of infectious disease specialists who recently investigated a set of cases in Saudi Arabia.

Of 23 confirmed cases in April, 15 people died an extremely high fatality rate of 65 percent, according to Johns Hopkins senior epidemiologist Trish Perl, a member of the team that analyzed the spread of the virus through four Saudi hospitals.

Graphic

MERS: Mild for some, deadly for others

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Billionaire security guard: "I am saving the world for fun," says Eugene Kaspersky. "I have enough money." Photo: Stephen Voss/Wired

He's a virus killer whose name can be found inside tens of millions of computers worldwide - and he sees vistas of cyber-warfare everywhere he looks. The FBI trusts him, even though he also counts Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, as a client. Given that Eugene Kaspersky's company, Kaspersky Lab, is well on its way to becoming the dominant player in the world of computer security, it's perhaps not surprising that the 47-year-old Muscovite believes that cyber-crime, in all its hues, is currently the biggest threat facing the global economy. It's big business.

He rattles off the threats: tailor-made cyber-weapons designed to destroy data at a specified time; new infection methods designed to target big business; malware (malicious software used to disrupt computer operations) attached to app stores that steal data from mobile phones; co-ordinated attacks on government communications and infrastructure. Not to mention the common banking frauds that rob the IT specialists employed by the world's major banking and financial institutions of their sleep every night. "And the number-one problem?" booms the slightly rumpled CEO, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. "Cyber-weapons and cyber-espionage." And he's happy to identify the number-one offender, too. "China," he says emphatically.

The best software engineers are Russian Russian cyber-criminals are the best also.

Kaspersky now presides over a $US612-million-a-year private-tech empire, operating in nearly 200 countries. The company employs 2700 virus specialists and licenses its products to behemoths such as Microsoft, Cisco and IBM. "We are number four by revenue," he says. That is, number four after anti-virus giants Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro.

Source codes: As a military cadet in the 1980s, Eugene Kaspersky studied at the KGB-administered Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science.

Kaspersky's personal wealth is estimated to be $US1.18 billion. Out of 131 dollar-billionaires in Russia, Kaspersky is ranked 114. Not that money gets him out of bed in the morning, he insists. "I am saving the world for fun. I have enough money. Money has to be like oxygen. You have to have enough. I have enough."

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At Kaspersky Lab headquarters in the industrial outskirts of Moscow, most of the geeks wandering its corridors look disconcertingly young - like 14. The software is installed in the computers of some 300 million users worldwide, who rely on it to be protected from viruses, worms, Trojan malware (it only looks like it's doing what the user wants), spyware and other malicious software, or malware, that is designed to steal information, money and identity. With each detection of a threat, Kaspersky Lab is able to add to its formidable database of known malware.

I'm permitted to enter only a few work areas. Technical manuals and the remains of disembowelled computers are strewn across desktops while, in common areas, employees huddle together in groups, occasionally erupting in spontaneous bouts of applause as they cheer themselves on to their next task. The scene is reminiscent of those in The Social Network, except this isn't Facebook, we're not in Palo Alto and the company CEO isn't a socially challenged nerd. On the contrary, Kaspersky is charmingly affable - chatty even - and appears to be liked and respected by his workforce. They refer to him as the Che Guevara of internet security. On the day I visit, the temperature plummets to an uninviting -20C. My press contact, Anton Shingarev, walks me to the boss's office, which is surprisingly small. "I'm not here that often," Kaspersky explains in half-apology.

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Meet Eugene Kaspersky: the man on a mission to wage war against the computer virus