WIKIMEDIA, MARIANAH.96The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday (May 10) issued a statement calling for clinicians to test both the urine and blood of patients with suspected Zika virus infections. The virus can be detected for up to two weeks in urine, compared to only about one week in blood, according to a report released by the agency.
Under the new testing guidelines, “there may be some infections that are more definitively diagnosed than they would have been,” said CDC epidemiologist Marc Fischer, The Washington Post reported. “This gives you a more specific finding of the presence of genetic material of the virus.”
According to the agency’s report, the Florida Department of Health Bureau of Public Health Laboratories collected urine samples from 70 people suspected to have Zika virus infections, of which 65 tested positive by RT-PCR. Of the 55 individuals who had both blood and urine samples collected within five days of symptom onset, 95 percent of the urine samples and 56 percent of the blood samples tested positive for the virus. For specimens collected more than five days after symptom onset, ...
