PositiveID Corporation Expands Its Biological Detection Capabilities to Address Avian Flu and Other Pandemic Viruses

With the Company's MicroFluidic Systems Technology, It Can Quickly and Specifically Adapt Its Platform to Test for Any Bacteria or Virus and Provide Results in Minutes
Press Release Source: PositiveID Corporation On Wednesday September 14, 2011, 4:30 pm EDT

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 14, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PositiveID Corporation ("PositiveID" or the "Company") (OTCBB:PSID.OB - News), a developer of medical technologies for diabetes management, clinical diagnostics and bio-threat detection, announced today that it is expanding its biological detection capabilities to include the detection of H5N1, or avian flu, amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly bird flu virus is spreading overseas. Through its MicroFluidic Systems ("MFS") subsidiary, PositiveID has the biological capability to detect virtually any virus, bacteria or toxin in an environmental or clinical environment.

PositiveID is completing a test to rapidly and cost-effectively identify the mutant strain of H5N1 and expects to have its laboratory development completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The Company has created and proven both highly modular, smart, "plug and play" components and integrated solutions for practical, high utility biological analysis applications. Its products are able to rapidly process complex samples with a high level of sensitivity and accuracy.

William J. Caragol, PositiveID's CEO, said, "Our biological sample preparation and detection platform is highly adaptable, and the process of expanding our detection capabilities to test for new viruses and bacteria can be accomplished in a very short period of time. Therefore, not only can we be ready very quickly to test for this mutant strain of bird flu, but we can be ready for future outbreaks, whether it is swine flu or some other pandemic virus. Our unique solutions reduce costs, increase reliability and produce timely results, which is of critical importance when diagnosing pandemic viruses to improve outbreak containment measures."

The United Nations is urging people to be ready against a possible but major resurgence of the avian flu. The H5N1 virus has infected 565 people since it first appeared in 2003, killing 331, according to World Health Organization figures. Since 2003, H5N1 has killed or forced the culling of more than 400 million domestic poultry and caused an estimated $20 billion of economic damage across the globe before it was eliminated from most of the countries infected at its height in 2006. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the few avian influenza viruses that have crossed the species barrier to infect humans, the mutant strain of bird flu has caused the largest number of detected cases of severe disease and death in humans.

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