DETECT at Scripps Research

Background and Scientific Rationale

Early detection of infectious diseases helps prevent transmission and enable early intervention. Traditionally, detection has been limited to symptom onset when physiological disturbances often warrant medical attention and disease transmis- sion might already have occurred. For respiratory viral infections, symptom onset is typically several days to over 1 week after infec- tion, whereas asymptomatic infections are not likely to be detected at all1–3. When a symptom onset does occur, it is usually followed up by either an oral or skin temperature measurement or more defini- tively diagnosed using a biochemical test, such as antigen detection or polymerase chain reaction (PCR)