Zika test gets emergency approval by FDA

WLWT.com/CNN ^ | Apr. 29, 2016 | Meera Senthilingam

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• Zika test gets emergency approval by FDA

  Agency recommends testing for anyone with Zika infection symptoms

  (CNN) —The first commercial test for Zika virus has received emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

  According to the test's developers, Quest Diagnostics, the newly approved diagnostic tool will become available to physicians in the United States and Puerto Rico as early as next week. Puerto Rico is considered to be among the most affected areas, compared to the rest of the United States, with potential for hundreds more infections.

  Currently, people who suspect they are infected with the virus can only be tested through a network of laboratories approved by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current process requires a visit to physicians who must then go through the health department to get samples tested. Results can take up to three weeks and some people in the United States have reported challenges in getting tested, despite meeting the testing criteria.

  This new authorization is hoped to increase capacity for testing in the United States as well as shorten the time taken to receive a diagnosis.

  "The availability of our new molecular Zika test provides physicians broad access to a diagnostic tool for managing the Zika outbreak," Rick L. Pesano, vice president of research and development at Quest Diagnostics, said in a statement released Thursday.

[fwdude]

We’ll be importing Zika, government-funded, when the Olympics are held later this year.

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Sigh...wish you were wrong, but what you suggest seems likely.