Scientists from the Washington University in St. Louis have created a new test that can detect almost all viruses that can cause illnesses in humans and animals.

The new test, called ViroCap, can possibly become a breakthrough for the medical community, especially in the diagnosis of illnesses that are caused by unknown infectious agents.

According to the university's pediatrics professor Dr. Gregory Storch in a press release, the test can detect viruses even if they are at the lowest levels.

Storch added that there is no need to know firsthand what to look for when using the test.

"We think the test will be especially useful in situations where a diagnosis remains elusive after standard testing or in situations in which the cause of a disease outbreak is unknown," he said.

Results from the ViroCap test can now be found in the journal Genome Research.

For the study, scientists looked into the results taken from the gold-standard test used popularly in clinical settings, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, and compared it with those from the ViroCap test.

In one group, PCR assay was able to detect viruses in 10 out of 14 patients, while the new test was able to catch those in the remaining 4 patients.

In another study done on children with fever, PCR detected 11 viruses, while ViroCap caught 7 more in 8 children.

Scientists noted that ViroCap had 52 percent improvement compared to PCR tests when it comes to virus testing, as reported in UPI.

ViroCap is a promising test that may not only target viruses. According to study co-author and assistant pediatrics professor, Kristine Wylie, PhD, the test can be modified to give it the capability of detecting infectious agents such as bacteria and fungi.

More interestingly, the test can also be modified to detect genes that tell that the agent is treatment-resistant.

More research is needed to establish ViroCap's accuracy and it could still take many years before it can be used in clinical settings.