Adventures in Arbovirus Diagnostics

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an Aedes mosquito-borne flavivirus that emerged in Brazil in 2015 and then rapidly spread throughout the tropical and subtropical Americas. Based on clinical criteria alone, ZIKV cannot be reliably distinguished from infections with other pathogens that cause an undifferentiated systemic febrile illness, including infections with other common arboviruses such as dengue virus. This presentation details the nucleic acid amplification tests and serological methods that are available to diagnose ZIKV infection.

Lecture Presenter
Benjamin Pinsky, MD, PhD
Benjamin Pinsky, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Pathology and Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
Medical Director, Clinical Virology Laboratory, Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health

Benjamin Pinsky, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Medicine, in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He serves as the Medical Director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory for Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health, as well as the Medical Director for Point of Care Testing at the Surgery Center at the Byers Eye Institute and Stanford Primary Care. Dr. Pinsky earned his MD and PhD degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He received residency training in Clinical Pathology and fellowship training in Molecular Genetic Pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Pinsky’s research interests include the design of novel diagnostics and investigation of the clinical impact of infectious diseases testing.

Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

Describe the clinical utility of nucleic acid amplification testing for the diagnosis of Zika virus infection.
Describe the variety of specimen types available for Zika virus nucleic acid amplification testing.
Describe the clinical utility of syndromic multiplexed panels for the diagnosis of Zika virus and other causes of undifferentiated systemic febrile illness.
Describe the pitfalls of IgM testing for the diagnosis of Zika virus infection.
Describe the potential utility of IgG and IgG avidity testing to determine the timing of Zika virus exposure.