A Long Island company is working on what it hopes will be a medical breakthrough that could quickly tell whether a person has the Ebola virus.

John Sperzel, of Chembio Diagnostics in Medford, says the test would use a drop of blood on a special plastic card. The 20-minute turnaround would be an improvement over the current system, which involves driving a patient's blood to a state lab in Albany. Infectious disease specialists say a quicker and easier test could speed up lifesaving treatment for patients.

"It would be helpful if we could rule out early that the patient has Ebola because we then would be able to discharge the patient to their home," says Dr. Bettina Fries, of Stony Brook University Hospital.

Chembio hopes its quicker testing methods will be used in remote villages, modern hospitals and even airports.

Scientists caution that the improved test may not always detect Ebola if the patients don't have enough virus growth in their bodies.