Diagnostic Challenges and Innovations

Neglected viruses are the viruses that cause some of the neglected tropical infections commonly connected with poverty in the Americas, Asia, and developing regions of Africa. Examples of these viruses are Japanese encephalitis virus, dengue fever virus, yellow fever virus, Rift Valley fever virus, rabies virus, monkeypox, and some other viruses that cause viral hemorrhagic fevers. In contrast to HIV/AIDS, which mostly obtains superior research/treatment funding, neglected viruses received limited ones. Although these viruses can cause disfiguring, debilitating, and possibly life-threatening infections, limited attention has been drawn to their negative impact, predominantly among populations living in poverty and geographical isolation. Boosted diagnostic methods for neglected viral infections are vital for controlling approaches of treatment at diverse verges like infection control, transmission disruption, eradication, and post-elimination investigation. There is an obvious contrast in the progress status between chemotherapy and diagnostics of neglected viral infections as considerable improvement has been achieved in the case of chemotherapy in the latter two decades, but a matching situation cannot be supposed of diagnostics, principally attributable to the apparent nonexistence of a commercially feasible diagnostics market for all neglected tropical infections. This chapter reports on current diagnostic methods, emerging diagnostic technologies, and limitations and prospects for selected important neglected viruses.