Prototype breath tests spot bacterial infections in minutes

Infectious diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, and diagnosing bacterial infections remains a challenge in medicine. And doing so reliably is more important than ever, given the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance. Now, research published in ACS Central Science could help health care professionals non-invasively diagnose bacterial infections, using breath-based tests. Initial experiments demonstrated the approach in animals with pneumonia and infections in the bloodstream, muscles and bones.