New Blood Test Can Tell You Any Virus That Has Ever Infected Your Body

Ready for your mind to be blown?

Researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently developed technology that makes it possible to find out every virus you’ve ever been infected with by analyzing a single drop of blood.

The new method is called VirScan, and it is potentially a huge milestone for medical diagnostics.

It has the ability to detect more than 1,000 pathogens at once as opposed to traditional blood tests used at the moment which can only test one pathogen at a time.

According to Stephen Elledge,

"What makes this so unique is the scale: Right now, a physician needs to guess what virus might be at play and individually test for it. With VirScan, we can look for virtually all viruses, even rare ones, with a single test."

The team tested 569 people from Peru, the United States, South Africa and Thailand, and there was a pattern suggesting many people have been exposed to the same peptides or viruses.

The study also helped researchers investigate the difference between how exposure to a certain virus can correlate with the possibility of contracting a different disease later on.

This could even help researchers develop preventative methods for cancer and other diseases.

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