Same-day test detects hidden infections in critically ill children

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 16 Oct, 18:20 · Archive

A same-day metagenomic test has detected hidden and drug-resistant infections in critically ill children at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Clinicians at Great Ormond Street Hospital have used metagenomic testing on respiratory samples from 122 critically ill young patients in the hospital's paediatric intensive care unit between 2024 and 2025. The test works by sequencing all genetic material present in a specimen, rather than requiring doctors to decide in advance what pathogen they are looking for.

The testing successfully detected approximately nine out of ten bacteria and viruses in samples, along with every fungus identified. Notably, it uncovered 50 organisms that standard diagnostic methods had entirely missed. Prescribing decisions were altered in a quarter of cases as a direct result of the test results.

Ten-year-old Willow Crowther from Kent was admitted to intensive care at the hospital in March with pneumonia that triggered a seizure and multiple cardiac arrests. Her mother was told she had a 50 per cent chance of survival. Metagenomic testing identified that Willow had a drug-resistant bacterial infection requiring a different antibiotic to the one she had been prescribed. With the right treatment, she eventually recovered after several months in hospital.

Dr Sam Ray, a consultant in paediatric intensive care medicine at the hospital, said the test helps doctors 'spot infections we would have missed, get children on the right treatment and stop antibiotics when we know they aren't going to work'. The technology is being progressively rolled out to roughly 30 intensive care units around the country.

How it is being reported

• Groundbreaking same-day test helps detect hidden infections in critically ill childrenA 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…GB News · 16 Oct, 17:38
• Same-day test helps doctors detect hidden infections in critically ill childrenMetagenomics offers a new way of detecting infections in intensive care patients.BBC News · 16 Oct, 01:34

In this story: Great Ormond Street Hospital · Willow Crowther · London · Kent

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