Zika test costs 780 dollars (Labcorp)– June 2016

Labcorp started offering the test in June 2016

Current problems with Zika testing

1. Cost: $780
2. Hassle getting tested with no real benefit to the individual (no vaccine, etc)
3. Test only works in narrow time window
4. Accuracy was unstated – unknown % false positive and % false negatives
   False Positive (I guess = 10%) incorrectly told that you have Zika
      Malaria infections can produce false-positives
   False Negative (I guess = 10%) incorrectly told that you DO NOT have Zika
      test was taken too early or too late

Note: I sent them an email asking about cost and test accuracy - they declined to comment on test accuracy

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Note: Cocaine field tests have false positives of 10% to 30% – yet continue to put people in prison 40 years later

How a $2 Roadside Drug Test Sends Innocent People to Jail

• " By our estimate, though, every year at least 100,000 people nationwide plead guilty to drug-possession charges that rely on field-test results as evidence. At that volume, even the most modest of error rates could produce thousands of wrongful convictions."

Test was known to have false positives in the 1970’s but is still being used in 2016