Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
With the start of the 2020 flu season, co-circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal influenza viruses could complicate the early detection of COVID-19, experts warn.
A diagnostic test that can discriminate between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B viruses is urgently needed, according to Fabiola Mancini, PhD, and colleagues from the COVID-19 National Reference Laboratory and the National World Health Organization (WHO) Influenza Center of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) in Rome.
Results from their evaluation of a multiplex one-step reverse transcriptase Real Time PCR assay showed that it effectively detected and discriminated between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B viruses. The assay was highly specific and reproducible, and intercepted co-infections, they reported online in the