A Clinical Approach to Novel Diagnostics and Therapeutics: The Challenge of Zika

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne neurotropic virus that gained attention following the 2015 outbreak in Brazil. It often presents with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, headache, and myalgia. More specific symptoms include arthralgia in small joints, a maculopapular rash, and conjunctivitis. Zika-associated complications include Guillain-Barré syndrome and microcephaly. In this chapter, current and advanced diagnostic methods are discussed, including reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), microfluidic paper-based analytic devices (μPAD), nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), recombinase polymerase amplification, and NASBA combined with a CRISPR/Cas9-based module. Additionally, vaccines and therapeutics are reviewed.