Federal regulators approved a new test to determine if someone has the Zika virus, with doctors getting it as early as next week.
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization on Friday to Quest Diagnostics for the test, which will expand the number of laboratories that can verify and process the results. Zika causes a mild illness but is linked to a birth defect and possibly to a brain disorder.
Quest plans to use a lab in California and then possibly expand to several dozen other places, which is more than the handful of government-designated labs currently processing tests, the Associated Press reported.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a man in Puerto Rico died from complications due to the Zika virus. It is the first death in Puerto Rico, where the virus has infected more than 600 people.
The diagnostic testing approval comes as public health agencies gird for the coming of mosquito season, as mosquito bites are the primary way to transmit the virus. Mosquitoes have not spread the virus in the continental U.S.
The authorization comes as Congress battles over President Obama’s $1.9 billion Zika funding request, which includes money for the development of diagnostic tests for the virus.
