Zika virus test unavailable for pregnant New Brunswick woman

A New Brunswick woman says she had a healthscare after health care officials told her they didn't have the resources to test for the Zika virus.

When Jessica Allain first returned to Bouctouche from her trip to Playa del Carmen and started feeling nauseous, she says she wasn't too concerned. Her partner was also sick, so she assumed they'd just caught something minor while they were on vacation.

After a week went by, and she was still feeling sick, she went to the ER, where she found out she was pregnant.

"When she told me, I was like 'Oh my God, I just came back from Mexico,'" she said. "I was freaking out a little bit."

No resources for tests

Mexico has had 357 confirmed cases of the Zika virus, 113 of them in pregnant women.

She basically just told me also that they didn't have the resources at the moment to do those tests.- Jessica Allain

Allain asked to get tested for Zika, but was told that the hospital didn't have the necessary lab equipment to do the tests.

When she started seeing an obstetrician, she asked for the testing again.

"She basically just told me also that they didn't have the resources at the moment to do those tests," she said.

Now at the end of her second trimester, she has been comforted by normal ultrasounds, which are a secondary test used to rule out microencephaly,one of the possible outcomes of Zika in pregnant women, but has no proof that she was virus-free when she came back to Canada.

"I assume they could have sent some bloodwork even if it was across the country, just to confirm yes or no," Allain said, "because I know they are able to confirm it somewhere in the country."

"It would definitely be good peace of mind to be able to test it and then confirm."

National testing available in Winnipeg

The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends that if a woman has no symptoms, but has travelled to an infected area and is pregnant, she should talk to her doctor about getting tested.

The tests are done at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg with blood or urine samples sent in from across Canada.

There are two types of tests, however, and they both operate in a narrow time window and are not 100per centaccurate.There is a one to threeweek turnaround time, depending on the test. Tests can also be done in some provincial laboratories.

The New Brunswick Department of Health says that doctors in the province can send in their patients' samples for testing, but unless the patient has symptoms, it is at the doctor's discretionand it is the doctor's responsibility to do so directly.

There has been only one case of the Zika virus confirmed in New Brunswick.