A young Egyptian doctor participates in developing the Corona examination at Johns Hopkins University

Noha Saad

The state of panic in the absence of a confirmed treatment or vaccine has not subsided yet, in exchange for the increasing number of victims of the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19), while scientists are racing against time to come up with results to resist and limit its effects.

In light of these accelerating events, the name of the Egyptian doctor, Heba Mostafa, became a researcher involved in the production and development of the Corona virus test, which enables doctors to examine a thousand people daily.

Heba is an associate professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University and researcher in the fields of genetic virus monitoring and the relationship between virus evolution and disease severity. She has also been involved in developing molecular diagnostic panels for people with weakened immunity.

Because the long wait for the results causes a lot of tension and anxiety, especially in light of the information fumbling and a lot of rumors accompanying the daily news, the research centers have begun attempts to find a way to facilitate the Corona test, and initial results have already emerged from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Karen Carroll, a young Egyptian physician and microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University Karen Carroll, has developed an internal coronas test, which enables doctors to quickly detect people with coronas and examine those who have had contact with them.

"We did not expect the virus to turn into a pandemic, so health laboratories will not be able to perform all the required tests," Heba Mostafa said in a video posted by Johns Hopkins University.

The test is available to those who have symptoms of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and to those who meet US infection control standards, such as traveling to countries with high numbers of infected people.

She noted that "the development of the test was not difficult, but the most difficult part was obtaining the materials necessary to conduct the investigation, and as soon as we obtained it we completed the test in a short period of time."

The test is currently available in five hospitals in Maryland and Washington, Heba said. "We will be able to diagnose more cases and control the spread of the virus." The nose and mouth swab test was first used on March 11 in 85 cases in the first three days, and she continued "The numbers are expected to increase to 180 and then 500 cases to reach 1,000 cases at the beginning of April." The results appeared within 24 hours and this period is expected to decrease to 3 hours.

Corona virus testing will soon be available throughout the United States to the public through hospitals and specialized laboratories, but after medical approval is obtained first, they will be tested, as indicated by health departments in Virginia and Maryland.

scientific journey

Heba Mustafa graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Alexandria University in 2004, followed by periods of training in clinical pathology, then moved to the United States and obtained a PhD in microbiology in 2014 from the University of Kansas, and during that period, I submitted a lot of research that was reviewed and published in Many medical journals and local and international conferences.

She completed a three-year research fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and after completing a research fellowship, she completed a two-year clinical microbiology fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, and later obtained a certificate from the American Board of Medical Specializations from American Society of Microbiology.

Heba joined Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of pathology and director of the Department of Molecular Viruses at the Medical Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019.

After a short period of enrollment in one of the most prestigious American universities, she provided many assistance and took the initiative to participate in many researches in many fields.