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China Develops Diagnostic Reagent to Detect Zika Virus

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed a reagent for the detection of the Zika virus, under the support of a special project that aims to establish an emergency response mechanism and a testing platform for major infectious diseases. The reagent is highly sensitive to Zika virus, and has been distributed to provincial and municipal CDCs as well as quarantine departments at major border checkpoints so that suspected cases can be quickly tested to determine whether they have contracted the virus. The successful development of the Zika reagent has offered strong technology support for China to deal with the potential outbreak of Zika virus.

In addition, China CDC has also developed quantitative fluorescence PCR reagent that can test Zika virus, Dengue virus and Chikungunya virus at the same time. The evaluation result shows the reagent has a high degree of specificity and sensitivity. In January 2016, the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention used the reagent to test 484 serum samples, including 200 samples with suspected Dengue virus, 194 samples with other viruses and 90 samples from healthy people, and test results showed no Zika virus was founded in these samples.