By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-16 17:00:42 | Updated at 2026-10-16 18:09:39
1 hour ago
The technology is being progressively rolled out to roughly 30 intensive care units around the country
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PA
A groundbreaking same-day diagnostic test that sequences all genetic material in a patient sample has helped uncover hidden and drug-resistant infections in seriously unwell children.
The metagenomic approach works by analysing all DNA and RNA in a specimen, rather than requiring doctors to guess which pathogen might be responsible.
It can detect bacteria, viruses, fungi, and even previously unrecognised organisms.
Clinicians at Great Ormond Street Hospital examined respiratory samples taken from 122 critically ill young patients in the hospital's paediatric intensive care unit between 2024 and 2025.
The results enabled clinicians to initiate, halt, or adjust treatments with greater precision.
The study found that metagenomic testing successfully detected approximately nine out of ten bacteria and viruses present in samples, along with every fungus identified.
Notably, the technique uncovered 50 organisms that standard diagnostic methods had entirely missed.
Prescribing decisions were altered in a quarter of cases as a direct consequence of the test results.
Dr Sam Ray, a consultant in paediatric intensive care medicine at the hospital and co-author of the research, highlighted the dual benefit.
He said: "The study has helped us to spot infections we would have missed, get children on the right treatment and stop antibiotics when we know they aren't going to work."
He stressed the broader significance of curbing unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.
"Removing unnecessary treatment is incredibly important for the fight against growing antimicrobial resistance," said Dr Ray.
Dr Julianne Brown, who leads the hospital's metagenomics service and served as co-senior author of the paper, said the technology proved critical for 10-year-old Willow Crowther, who fell gravely ill in March after contracting severe pneumonia.
Her condition deteriorated rapidly, with a seizure and several cardiac arrests following.
Clinicians at Great Ormond Street Hospital used the metagenomic test and discovered she was harbouring a bacterial infection resistant to the antibiotics she had been receiving. A different drug was needed.
Her mother, Stacey Moore, said: "The consultant said... we should bring our family up to say goodbye to her. This is how critical and in how much danger she was of passing away."
Once doctors identified the resistant infection, they switched Willow's treatment.
Ms Moore added: "The fact that they had a test there available to her was paramount. It saved her life."
Dr Brown said: "It could be a powerful tool for identifying new infections that pose a pandemic threat.
"In the future, if there was to be a new mystery pathogen that could be a cause of the next pandemic, we would detect that very quickly and put the right measures in place."
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