Zika virus nucleic acid detection of biological samples from 13 Chinese infected in a foreign country

Objective To analyze the results of Zika virus nucleic acid detection of biological samples from 13 Chinese returning to Jiangmen city after viral infection in a foreign country.Methods Medical records were extracted and blood,urine and saliva samples were collected for all Zika virus infected patients reported in Jiangmen city of Guangdong province between February and April 2016.All collected samples were detected for Zika virus nucleic acid with fluorescent quantitative real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).Results Totally 10 overt and 3 covert Zika virus infections were reported in Jiangmen city during the 3-month period and all the reported cases were Chinese returning to China from Venezuela.Of the 13 cases,6 were male and 7 were female;the minimum age of the cases was 5 years and the maximum was 46 years,with a median age of 19 years;46.15% (6) of the cases were children under 14 years old.The positive duration of Zika virus nucleic acid detection ranged 0-4 days for blood,2-32 days for urine,and 0-4 days for saliva samples,with the medians of 0,5.5,3.5 days,respectively;both the positive duration of urine and saliva samples were significantly longer than that of blood (P<0.01 and P<0.05).Conclusion The positive duration of viral nucleic acid is different for blood,urine,and saliva samples from Zika virus infected people.