The invention, called Vereflu, will save precious time in diagnosing potentially deadly strains of flu, said officials from local firm Veredus Laboratories, which developed the kit along with Geneva-headquartered ST Microelectronics.

It can test for several strains of flu within two hours, using only a tiny sample from the throat.

The 10kg kit occupies the same space as a laptop computer and printer and is less than a quarter of the size of conventional flu diagnostic kits.

For now, the kit will be marketed to hospitals, airports and border checkpoints.

Eventually, Vereflu could reach farms and even homes, said Mr Robert Hodges, a director at ST Microelectronics. However, it will likely be several years before the setup is simple enough to use at home.

Independent trials at the National University Hospital (NUH) showed the kit can identify at least 13 virus strains. The list includes bird flu as well as the seasonal flu strains that killed children in Hong Kong earlier this month and forced schools to shut down.

Associate Professor Raymond Lin, who ran the NUH trials, said the tool can pick out mutating strains, a chief concern of infectious-disease experts on the alert for a potential pandemic.

'The seasonal flu strains that led the Hong Kong authorities to close schools for two weeks could have been diagnosed quickly with such a kit,' said Prof Lin.

The cost of Vereflu is still under wraps because the kit is in the early phase of production, said Veredus Laboratories chief executive officer Rosemary Tan.

'It is affordable, and comparable to the cost of using traditional devices,' she said. Those can cost hundreds of dollars.

Mr Hodges said the price of the kit is expected to drop as sales increase.

'This is disruptive technology to the marketplace, so it will take a while for the market to embrace it. Costs will come down further when we are able to mass-produce the kits. Now they are just being sold for evaluation,' said Mr Hodges.

Veredus and ST Microelectronics said they are working on diagnostic kits that can be used for a range of diseases, including cancer and Down's syndrome.

To achieve this, the companies opened a 300 sq m laboratory yesterday at Science Park, to be manned for a start by 10 scientists and engineers.

skesava@sph.com.sg

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