Robert Roos 
News Editor
News Editor
Dec 7, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – Diagnostic tests for the novel
coronavirus (CoV) that recently emerged in the Middle East are being
deployed rapidly in Europe, and about 250 patients have already been
tested for the virus, according to the European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control (ECDC).
An ECDC survey revealed that a screening test for the virus is
available in 23 of 46 responding countries in the World Health
Organization's (WHO's) European Region, according to a report yesterday
in Eurosurveillance. Those include 19 of 30 countries in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Confirmatory testing of positive screened samples is available in
22 of 46 responding countries, including 18 of 30 EU and EEA countries,
according to the survey. Six EU and EEA countries reported that they had
tested about 250 patients who met the WHO surveillance criteria, the
ECDC said.
The available screening test was the upE RT-PCR
(reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) assay, while
confirmatory testing involved ORF1b RT-PCR or other target RT-PCR assays
with sequence analysis, the report said.
Nine novel CoV infections, with five deaths, have been identified in the world so far.
In a companion report, a German team describes a new confirmatory
test for the novel CoV and a serologic test to detect antibodies to the
virus. The authors say the recent investigation of a cluster of novel
CoV cases in Saudi Arabia suggested that RT-PCR testing may miss cases
in patients with symptoms and epidemiologic links to known cases.
The team used samples from a patient who was treated in Germany to
develop their tests. (The WHO reported on Nov 23 that a Qatari man had
been flown to Germany for treatment and recovered there.) The new
confirmatory test is described as a "rigorously validated and highly
sensitive" real-time RT-PCR assay targeting the ORF1a gene, called the
1A assay, which can be used in combination with the previously reported
upE assay.
The authors describe their serologic test as a biologically safe
immunoflorescence assay, but they note that it is unknown to what extent
novel CoV antibodies cross-react with those against common human
coronaviruses such as OC43 and HKU1.
They suggest that the serologic test might be used for
confirmatory testing of persons epidemiologically linked to novel CoV
cases. In addition, the scientists describe two other new RT-PCR assays
for sequencing, targeting the novel CoV RdRp gene and N gene.
Palm D, Pereyaslov D, Vaz J, et al. Laboratory capability
for molecular detection and confirmation of novel coronavirus in Europe,
November 2012. Euro Surveill 2012 Dec 6;17(49):pii=20335 [Full text]
Corman VM, Muller MA, Costabel U, et al. Assays for
laboratory confirmation of novel human coronavirus (hCoV-EMC)
infections. Euro Surveill 2012 Dec 6;17(49):pii=20334 [Full text]
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