This new low-cost test can diagnose Zika in just 3 hours

While efforts to create a vaccine for Zika virus are ongoing, they’re not there yet, which means one of the most effective tools we’ve got to contain the infection are diagnostic measures that let scientists keep tabs on where Zika is turning up.

And now an international team of researchers led by Harvard University has come up with what could be the best tool yet – a fast, low-cost diagnostic system for strain-specific detection of Zika, which could one day be used in the field to diagnose the virus using blood, urine, or saliva samples in a matter of hours.