A device was recently created by
researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil that can analyze
clinical samples to diagnose the infection of 416 viruses. This tool is
composed of a DNA microarray slide that has 8 sub-arrays with viral probes that
will each replicate to make an array with 15,000 probes. So this way if there
is a patient who has their blood sample taken for the test, their viral
pathogen’s genome will bind to one of the probes and then produce a marker that
will be picked up by the scanner and detected.
This tool will be able to greatly
assist with epidemiological surveillance and fill in the gap where a lot of
conventional methods fail to appropriately diagnose the disease. Since there
are a number of viruses that can be harmful to humans and just haven’t done so
yet, this tool will detect those viruses and help prevent an outbreak like Zika
did. One of the creators believes that if this tool had been around when Zika
broke out, it could have possibly halted the outbreak to a confined area
because the Zika virus was not in people’s mind as being the pathogen. Therefore,
this tool will be able to detect viruses found in tropical world regions, and
also detect co-infection.
This device, due to the high cost
associated with its production, will only initially be used on patients that
are suspected to have a febrile disease whose diagnosis cannot be confirmed by
conventional methods. With summer approaching in the next few months, we’ll
have to wait and see if this device is as usual and can contain further Zika or
similar viral outbreaks.
-Jeanette
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