First laboratory for rapid molecular diagnostics in Croatia opens in Rijeka

(Photo: KBC Rijeka)

ZAGREB, 19 February (Hina) – The first laboratory for rapid molecular diagnostics in emergency medicine in Croatia was presented on Friday at the KBC Rijeka hospital’s emergency service.

That laboratory was developed in cooperation with the Centre for Proteomics of the University of Rijeka and the KBC Rijeka hospital. It will enable, among other benefits, a significant reduction in the time needed to diagnose coronavirus to only three to six hours.

Director of KBC Rijeka Alen Ružić said that at the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital had no diagnostic devices of its own.

The first PCR laboratory in that hospital started working soon, and thanks to new scientific knowledge, this laboratory for rapid molecular diagnostics in now being opened, Ružić said.

It is important that it is located at the emergency department, which reduces the costs of transport and protective equipment and increases the level of safety for patients and hospital staff from coronavirus spreading, he said.

(Photo: KBC Rijeka)

State Secretary at the Ministry of Health Željko Plazonić said that launching the laboratory was a great contribution to and progress in treatment, as well as proof that the new management of KBC Rijeka was quickly adapting and reorganising amid the pandemic.

He stressed that the Health Ministry had provided HRK 125,000 for this laboratory, which is worth HRK 440,000. He recalled that the ministry had also invested HRK 537,000 in equipping the first PCR laboratory in Rijeka’s KBC.

Plazonić announced the possibility of establishing a faculty of pharmacy in Rijeka.