Thursday, February 11, 2016
It’s a battle against time for Asian scientists who are scrambling to prepare a test kit for the Zika virus but their efforts cannot come to fruition in the absence of a live sample which is imperative for the research.
The infamous virus supposed to be the cause of brain anomalies in over four thousand newborns across brazil has affected large parts of America already. China’s confirmation of its first case on Thursday has sparked worry for South and Southeast Asian countries.
Engrossed in creating a diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the country, Indian scientists are staring in the face of an impediment: lack of a live sample.
A strain dating back to 1950 was rendered unsuitable for the research being conducted at the Indian Council of Medical Research, a pioneer in biomedical research.
Appeals have been sent to international agencies like World Health Organization, with connection to the dire need of a live sample in order to complete the test kit.
"If we get it, we can develop a kit and the testing procedures within a month," said a council official.
In another part of the continent, Singapore is trying to survive its skirmishes against a range of diseases including the Zika virus, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses—all sharing similar symptoms and causes.
Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, director of the infectious diseases program at the Singapore-based Bioinformatics Institute of A*Star, is working on the research and opines that every country and major city needs to be prepared.
The new kit developed by Maurer-Stroh's team is expected to save both the cost and the time needed to test patients for the three viruses individually. Moreover, it can be conveniently run on standard hospital equipment, enabling a wider use.
"It is a challenge to get the information as well as access to all samples and sequences, and that's a challenge that everyone in the world faces," Maurer-Stroh further stated.
Source : in.reuters.com
