Original from: business wire
Cepheid, a Danaher company, today announced it has donated an initial shipment of Xpert® Hemorrhagic Fever panel tests to support the diagnostic response to the Ebola Bundibugyo (BDBV) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, 2026.
The initial shipment of Xpert® Hemorrhagic Fever tests has arrived in the DRC. Cepheid is working toward additional production in close coordination with the U.S. government, WHO, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in-country ministries of health, and other partners to accelerate deployment as quickly as possible, in alignment with applicable regulatory pathways and public health coordination mechanisms.
“Cepheid is working urgently with global health partners to deploy the Xpert Hemorrhagic Fever panel test in affected regions, particularly in regions at high risk of cross-border transmission,” said Dr. Connie Savor, Chief Medical Officer, Cepheid. “Cepheid's decentralized access on the existing GeneXpert installed base across Africa enables the global public health community to scale the response and supports fast isolation, treatment, and outbreak control.”
“The response is only possible through coordinated public-private partnerships,” said Larry Kelmar, Vice President, Government Programs and Pharmaceutical Collaborations, Cepheid. “Cepheid’s decades of experience addressing disease outbreaks and established partnerships enable us to efficiently respond and help get testing capabilities where they are most needed.”
The Xpert® Hemorrhagic Fever panel test is FDA 510(k) cleared for use by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and part of DoD’s Next Generation Diagnostics System 2 Program. The assay detects and identifies nucleic acids of the following organisms: Ebola virus, including the Bundibugyo strain driving this outbreak, as well as Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus, Marburg virus, and Lassa virus. The time to result is about one hour.
The Xpert® Hemorrhagic Fever panel test runs on Cepheid’s GeneXpert® systems. There is an extensive installed base of GeneXpert systems already deployed across DRC, Uganda, South Sudan, and Rwanda, offering vital infrastructure to support decentralized testing in outbreak-stricken regions.
Cepheid has supported public health responses to Ebola for more than a decade. During the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, the Xpert® Ebola test received FDA Emergency Use Authorization and was deployed across affected regions, demonstrating that rapid molecular testing in decentralized settings could close the gap between symptom onset and laboratory confirmation.
Cepheid has more than 20 years of experience responding to infectious disease emergencies. In early 2020, Cepheid was first to receive FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a point-of-care molecular PCR test for COVID-19, with authorization coming within weeks of the SARS-CoV-2 viral sequence becoming available. In February 2023, Xpert Mpox received the first FDA EUA for a point-of-care molecular test for Mpox. In November 2024, it became the only point-of-care molecular test to receive WHO Emergency Use Listing for Mpox,6extending access to resource-limited settings globally. With GeneXpert systems deployed across more than 180 countries, Cepheid’s established global infrastructure is built for precisely this kind of rapid, at-scale response.
Source: Cepheid Delivers Xpert® Hemorrhagic Fever Panel Tests to Africa to Address Diagnostic Gaps in Ebola Bundibugyo Outbreak
