Use of the () kit for MERS-CoV detection.

INTRODUCTION

Mortality due to MERS-CoV infection is common especially among immunocompromised patients. The pathogenesis and the transmission mode of this virus are still not well understood. The name of the virus is derived from the area of its appearance and the genomic sequence that was used in the development of qRT-PCR assays for MERS-CoV detection was retrieved from the first detected case isolate. The employed assays target various regions including the area upstream of the envelope gene (upE) that is used for screening and the open reading frames (ORF) 1a and 1b used for confirmation.

AIM

This study assesses the use of a MERS-CoV specific assay for screening of respiratory samples in anticipation of the possible spread of the virus in the region.

METHODS

46 respiratory specimens were tested using the qualitative one-step qRT-PCR () kit (PrimerDesign™).

RESULTS

Out of the 46 tested samples, 45 were negative for MERS-CoV and one sample was found MERS-CoV positive.

CONCLUSION

The () kit is very useful for the screening of suspected respiratory cases in the Middle East area as well as other regions.