Charrel R, et al. – This study aimed at assessing and improving the capability of European expert laboratories for Zika virus (ZIKV) molecular testing through an External Quality Assessment scheme. Analysis at laboratory level indicated that only 40% of the laboratories (20/50) representing 45% of the countries scored sufficiently, i.e. had at least one test operational that scored all core samples correctly. Thereby suggesting the necessity for improvement of molecular detection of ZIKV in 60% of the participating laboratories. While the specificity of the tests was more robust, the results of the EQA indicated large variation in test sensitivity. Researchers suggested focusing improvement on both nucleic acid extraction and ZIKV detection methods.