Article ID: CBB603527462

Imperfect diagnosis: The truncated legacies of Zika testing (October 2021)

unapi

When the Zika virus burst onto the international scene in the second half of 2015, the development of diagnostic tools was seen as an urgent global health priority. Diagnostic capacity was restricted to a small number of reference laboratories, and none of the few available molecular or serological tests had been validated for extensive use in an outbreak setting. In the early weeks of the crisis, key funders stepped in to accelerate research and development efforts, and the WHO took responsibility for steering diagnostic standardization, a role it had successfully played during the West Africa Ebola virus outbreak. Yet when the WHO declared the end of the Zika Public Health Emergency of International Concern in November 2016, diagnostic capacity remained patchy, and few tools were available at the scale required in the countries that bore the brunt of the epidemic, particularly Brazil. This article analyses the limited impact of global R&D efforts on the availability of Zika diagnostic options where they were most needed and for those most vulnerable: women who might have been exposed to the virus during their pregnancy and children born with suspected congenital Zika syndrome. The truncated legacies of testing during the Zika crisis reveal some of the fault lines in the global health enterprise, particularly the limits of ‘emergency R&D’ to operate in geopolitical contexts that do not conform to the ideal type of a humanitarian crisis, or to tackle technical issues that are inextricably linked to domestic struggles over the scope and distribution of biological citizenship. Diagnostic shortcomings, we argue, lie at the heart of the stunning transformation, in less than two years, in the status of Zika: from international public health emergency to neglected disease.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB603527462/

Similar Citations

Article Anne Kerr; Tineke Broer; Emily Ross; Sarah Cunningham Burley; (August 2019)
Polygenic risk-stratified screening for cancer: Responsibilization in public health genomics (/isis/citation/CBB774833590/)

Article Grisotti, Márcia; Avila-Pires, Fernando Dias de; (2011)
Worms, Slugs and Humans: The Medical and Popular Construction of an Emerging Infectious Disease (/isis/citation/CBB001420542/)

Article Abeysinghe, Sudeepa; (2014)
An Uncertain Risk: The World Health Organization's Account of H1N1 (/isis/citation/CBB001420418/)

Article Tiago Ribeiro Duarte; (2020)
Ignoring scientific advice during the Covid-19 pandemic: Bolsonaro’s actions and discourse (/isis/citation/CBB565587316/)

Article Alexandra Hillman; Joanna Latimer; (April 2019)
Somaticization, the making and unmaking of minded persons and the fabrication of dementia (/isis/citation/CBB034246323/)

Article Erik Børve Rasmussen; (December 2020)
Making and managing medical anomalies: Exploring the classification of ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ (/isis/citation/CBB131501262/)

Article Julia Swallow; Alexandra Hillman; (April 2019)
Fear and anxiety: Affects, emotions and care practices in the memory clinic (/isis/citation/CBB055124638/)

Article Sá, Ivone Manzali de; (2011)
A resistência à cloroquina e a busca de antimalariais entre as décadas de 1960 e 1980 (/isis/citation/CBB001420522/)

Article Marlene Tamanini; (2020)
Assisted reproduction: Brazilian heterosexual couples' testimonies on the care of specialists (/isis/citation/CBB903736402/)

Article Maciel-Lima, Sandra Mara; (2015)
The Impact that the Influenza a (H1N1) Pandemic Had on News Reporting in the State of Paraná, Brazil (/isis/citation/CBB001552725/)

Article Palmer, Steven; Hochman, Gilberto; Arbex, Danieli; (2010)
Smallpox Eradication, Laboratory Visits, and a Touch of Tourism: Travel Notes of a Canadian Scientist in Brazil (/isis/citation/CBB001420472/)

Chapter Pamela Block; Fátima Gonçalves Cavalcante; (2014)
Historical Perceptions of Autism in Brazil: Professional Treatment, Family Advocacy, and Autistic Pride, 1943-2010 (/isis/citation/CBB082394369/)

Article Carreta, Jorge Augusto; (2011)
Oswaldo Cruz e a controvérsia da sorologia (/isis/citation/CBB001420533/)

Article Shirley Sun; Ann Hui Ching; (2021)
Social Systems Matter: Precision Medicine, Public Health, and the Medical Model (/isis/citation/CBB879164513/)

Authors & Contributors
Hillman, Alexandra
Hochman, Gilberto
Cerbini, Francesca
Tiago Ribeiro Duarte
Hon-Ngen Fung
Fátima Gonçalves Cavalcante
Concepts
Medicine
Public health
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Diagnosis
Disease and diseases
Research and development (R&D)
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
Brazil
United States
Canada
Singapore
Argentina
Europe
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment