A Middle-Tennessee company is announcing what could be a major breakthrough in diagnosing the H1N1 virus.

Diatherix of Brentwood developed tests to diagnose the Avian flu several years ago.

Now the company claims to have
the fastest test available for detecting the H1N1 virus.

In Tennessee, suspected cases of the H1N1 virus led to canceled classes and schools being completely sanitized.

The virus is also creating a world wide demand for test kits.

Acting CDC Director Richard Besser says, "We had request for diagnostic tests from around the world and we feel that its an important role of the CDC to meet that demand."

A Brentwood based company says it's developed a test to identify H1N1 faster than any other product on the market.

Dennis Grimaud, the CEO of Diatherix Laboratories, says, "The idea behind it is fast results, leads to better information and faster containment of this virus."

While current tests for the H1N1 virus can take several days, Grimaud says his company's test can yield results in six hours or less.

"It's taking between seven to fourteen days to definitively call up a sample of the h1n1 or swine flu. That's very disconcerting for families. We're seeing masks being worn. We're seeing schools being closed," says Grimaud.

In addition to H1N1, Diatherix has developed tests to rapidly diagnose the Avian Flu.

Their tests look for multiple pathogens to help doctors get an accurate diagnosis.

Grimaud says, "Instead of just running it as swine flu its part of our viral respiratory panel which is not just checking for swine flu, we're checking for nine other virus at the same time, that's the real value in this ability."

It's cutting edge technology that scientists say will become more essential as physicians around the world deal with a growing number of pandemics.

Grimaud says, "If we can return a result within the same day within a geographical region or over night, next day then have faster results which leads to containment of this flu outbreak."

In Tennessee, suspected cases of H1N1 had to be reported to the CDC along with samples for testing.

The state now has its own test kits which is helping to speed up the diagnosis.Tennessee Company Develops Breakthrough H1N1 Virus Test