Dengue Molecular Assay Approved for Use in Brazil

A molecular assay for Dengue fever has been approved for use in Brazil, a country, which has about a million cases of Dengue a year.

The Dengue test is performed on whole blood specimens to quantitatively detect and differentiate between the four Dengue serotypes (viruses DEN1-4). Results can be provided in as few as 60 minutes following sample extraction.

The test kit, from the Simplexa product line on the 3M (St Paul, MN, USA) Integrated Cycler, is the first commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to be approved for use by Brazil’s public and private health laboratories for testing for Dengue viruses.

Caused by a virus transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, Dengue is endemic throughout the tropics and subtropics. Brazil has the greatest number of dengue infections in the Americas, with nearly a million cases annually accounting for 60 % of the region’s dengue infections.

Dengue symptoms range from mild fever to severe headaches with muscle and joint pain. Hemorrhagic fever is a potentially fatal complication primarily affecting children. Although there are no specific antiviral medicines for Dengue, “early clinical diagnosis and careful clinical management by experienced physicians and nurses increase survival of patients,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland).

Focus Diagnostics (Cypress, CA, USA), a wholly-owned business of Quest Diagnostics, develops and manufactures the Simplexa line of molecular test products operating on the 3M Integrated Cycler, a compact, portable testing platform, as part of an exclusive global collaboration with 3M.

In 2011, the Simplexa/3M technology won gold Medical Design Excellence Award in the in vitro diagnostics category and an Edison Award for new science and medical diagnostic product.

Related Links:
3M
World Health Organization
Focus Diagnostics