Brazilian Lab Runs Diagnostic Imaging Test for Zika Infections

07/26/2017 - 09h31

A Fiocruz laboratory, in the State of Paraná, is conducting an unprecedented diagnostic imaging test in Brazil for the zika virus.

The equipment, in operation for about six months, is able to "photograph" the virus' actions in the cells and increases the accuracy and scale of the diagnostics- it can analyze approximately 1,500 samples per hour.

"That is a fantastic figure", said virologist Cláudia Nunes Duarte dos Santos, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology of Fiocruz Paraná.

The group was responsible for the confirmation of the zika virus in eight samples from the State of Rio Grande do Norte, through viral genome sequencing, in May 2015.

To give you a better picture, Brazil has recorded 215,000 potential zika cases in 2016.

One of the advantages of the new technique, for example, would be to test a substantial number of people at low costs - and not only pregnant women or symptomatic patients, as it is currently the case.

Those who live in risk areas for the Aedes aegypti mosquito or women who plan to become pregnant and want to know whether they are infected by the virus could undergo the test.

An additional advantage is the accuracy of the test: it can differentiate zika from dengue with a 91% precision - the average of current exams is 50%.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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	Theo Marques/Folhapress
	A Fiocruz laboratory, in the State of Paraná, is conducting an unprecedented diagnostic imaging test in Brazil for the zika virus