SINGAPORE (Eagle News) — In Singapore, researchers have developed a test kit for the Zika virus that could be used in hospitals soon.
Global health officials have said the virus has been linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, and is rapidly spreading internationally.
On February 10, China confirmed its first case in a man who had recently traveled to South America.
Masafumi Inoue at A-STAR, a research institute in Singapore, said progress on the test kit has accelerated since they started a few months ago.
“We started last year when we got the information from Brazil, so it’s more than a few months already past. In the beginning, we didn’t do very much, because we didn’t notice the danger of the Zika virus, but this year, more news has come, and we put energy to develop the Zika virus kit,” Ioue said.
Inoue also said that a blood sample containing the patient’s DNA is first extracted. The genome is then amplified to make detection easier.
He added that the whole process takes about three hours, and is 99 percent accurate.
The test kit is also a three-in-one. It diagnoses Zika, dengue and Chikungunya — all of them have similar symptoms and can be carried by the aedes mosquitoes.
Researchers say this makes the test kit more economical and efficient.
Sebastian Maurer-Stroh is the other researcher behind the test kit and specializes in the virus itself.