On March 16, 2017, CDC www.cdc.gov posted a notice on www.fbo.gov with the intent to award a sole source firm-fixed price purchase order for $149,951 to the Bio-Nuclear of Puerto Rico, Inc. www.bionuclear.com located in San Juan. The government intends to purchase the Dynex Agility System www.dynex-agility.com needed by CDC’s Division of Emergency Operations.
The Dynex Agility technology allows for the testing of 6 ELISA plates which will truly accelerate Zika diagnostics testing. Since Zika is cross-reactive with dengue in ELISA assays, the immunodiagnostics for Zika and dengue must be done concurrently in order to better diagnose a patient.
This technology will allow the CDC to increase laboratory immunodiagnostics capacity for Zika, which will be crucial to CDC’s efforts to stop the spread of the virus and to be able to do in-depth studies on the disease.
Specifically, this testing platform will be used to test specimens for pregnant women in Puerto Rico and will allow the CDEC to meet and maintain testing goals that are required to provide diagnostic services to this vulnerable population.