Concerns about the Zika virus seem to be spreading just as fast as the disease, but a new portable device could provide an accurate way to find and diagnose the disease at an extremely low cost.
inexpensive materials, that could offer a reliable diagnosis in a short amount of time.
Utilizing an assay placed in a cartridge made by a 3D printer, the new test looks for genetic material from the Zika virus instead of antibodies produced by the body to combat the disease. Using antibodies to determine the presence of the Zika virus can often produce false results because the patients who have the virus may not have produced enough antibodies at the time of testing, or may have another disease that triggered the release of those antibodies.
The new test also uses a more efficient means of testing the molecular structure of the samples and the virus, through a technique called reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP).
The test results can also be produced much quicker compared to traditional laboratory testing. A color-changing dye in the cylinder shows the presence of the virus, and the study says that scientists were able to obtain a diagnosis from a single sample in less than 40 minutes.
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