(Wired) – A lab at the University of Nebraska has developed a test that can detect the virus before symptoms become severe. Now, it’s ready to start testing cruise ship passengers returning to the US.

As passengers return to the US from the cruise that saw a rare hantavirus outbreak, much of the country is lacking a basic public health tool: a test to diagnose the illness in the earliest stages of infection. Nebraska may be the first state with the ability to do so.

In just a few days, a lab at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha developed its own diagnostic test for the Andes virus in anticipation of receiving 16 American passengers from the ship. (Read More)