Anne Schuchat, MD, the principal deputy director for the CDC, contradicted whistleblower claims that the agency has been promoting the use of a less effective Zika test during an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum, according to The Hill.
The claims regarding the Zika tests were made by Robert Lanciotti, PhD, who has served as the chief of the CDC's Diagnostics and Reference Laboratory Activity, Arbovirus Diseases Branch, in Fort Collins, Colo., since 2000. However, he was demoted in May after raising concerns about the CDC-backed tests. He was reinstated in July after filing a whistle-blower retaliation claim with the Office of Special Counsel, according to The Washington Post.
Dr. Lanciotti backs the use of the Singleplex Zika test whereas the CDC backs the Trioplex. Dr. Lanciotti's concerns spurred an internal investigation and review of the whistle-blower retaliation claim filed with the Office of Special Counsel.
While Dr. Schuchat did not mention Dr. Lanciotti by name, she said, "We are using the best tests available." The Deputy Director also stated that the tests have been updated to make them more sensitive.
The internal CDC investigation conducted in the wake of Dr. Lanciotti's claims found these updates to have increased the sensitivity of the Trioplex diagnostic test. While Dr. Lanciotti disagreed with the report's findings and continues to use the Singleplex test, Carolyn N. Lerner, the head of the OSC, found the CDC's investigation reasonable, according to her letter to President Barack Obama on the matter.
Dr. Schuchat acknowledged that the current Zika test is not perfect.
"The test we have right now is, 'I have it right now' or 'I've had it recently,' but there's a lot of false positives," she said, according to The Hill.
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