For much of the world, a brief fever is something to shrug off. But in areas where mosquitos that carry the Zika virus are rampant, knowing whether that fever is due to Zika or something else can be life-altering.
Zika is usually mild in adults, but causes major birth defects in developing fetuses. The virus increases the chance of miscarriage and stillbirth, and affected babies are often born with microcephaly and other severe brain defects. The virus can be sexually transmitted for many months after symptoms disappear, so knowing whether they have contracted Zika is crucial for couples of childbearing age.
A new test that uses the same paper fluidics concept as urine-based pregnancy tests can distinguish Zika from the closely related viral illness, dengue fever. The test can also distinguish between subtypes of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can be fatal.
“Because the clinical symptoms overlap so much, it’s very difficult to distinguish these viral infections,” says Lee Gehrke, a professor of medical engineering and science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor of microbiology and immunology at Harvard Medical School. It is also difficult to distinguish the viruses based on structure, he says. Zika and dengue are both part of a family known as flaviviruses. They are...
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