Lack of Zika-Specific Test Creates Dilemma For Some Pregnant Women
Lack of Zika-Specific Test Creates Dilemma For Some Pregnant Women
PAHO’s Director Carissa Etienne discussed the global efforts and costs of battling the Zika virus at COA and the U.S. State Department annual Washington Conference.
Pregnant women who’ve traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean are advised to be tested for the Zika virus afterward. But medical researchers have discovered there’s a problem with that advice: Some diagnostic tests will return positive results even when a person hasn’t contracted Zika….
…Speaking at the 46th annual Washington Conference on the Americas, an event hosted by the Council of the Americas at the State Department earlier this week, Carissa Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization, described developing accurate antibody tests as one of the next battle fronts in the fight against the rapidly spreading Zika virus.
Etienne said reliable data was crucial considering that so much was still unknown about Zika. But getting that information can be difficult because other viruses, such as dengue and chikungunya, are prevalent in the same areas, and scientists don’t understand how the infections interact….
