The results were published in the January issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. It also found SLE missed by the other methods, and possibly detected non-infectious forms of the virus. The sensitivity of RT-PCR is really superior. The U. of I. technique, in which a catalytic reaction causes viral sequences to reproduce, was initially announced in 1993. Houston's low prevalence of SLE offered a stringent test of the technique, Novak said.
Researchers hope to use the technique to learn the natural history of mosquito-borne viruses.
Such knowledge, Novak said, may lead to the answer about what causes viral outbreaks. The St. Louis encephalitis virus, for example, is believed to be continuously present in its non-infectious form in Illinois. Our goal is prevention. If we can detect SLE or any other virus at very low levels in the field, and see changes of the virus through a surveillance system, then mosquito-control measures can be initiated. If you reach the point of an outbreak, you are too late.