Suchergebnisse

Yellow fever (YF) remains a public health issue in endemic areas despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. In 2015–2016, urban outbreaks of YF were declared in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a sylvatic outbreak has been ongoing in Brazil since December 2016. Of great concern is the risk of urban transmission cycles taking hold in Brazil and the possible spread to countries with susceptible populations and competent vectors. Vaccination remains the cornerstone of an outbreak response, but a low vaccine stockpile has forced a sparing-dose strategy, which has thus far been implemented in affected African countries and now in Brazil. Accurate laboratory confirmation of cases is critical for efficient outbreak control. A dearth of validated commercial assays for YF, however, and the shortcomings of serological methods make it challenging to implement YF diagnostics outside of reference laboratories. We examine the advantages and drawbacks of existing assays to identify the barriers to timely and efficient laboratory diagnosis. We stress the need to develop new diagnostic tools to meet current challenges in the fight against YF. ; Peer Reviewed

In order to detect serum antibodies against clinically important Old and New World hantaviruses simultaneously, multiparametric indirect immunofluorescence assays (IFAs) based on biochip mosaics were developed. Each of the mosaic substrates consisted of cells infected with one of the virus types Hantaan (HTNV), Puumala (PUUV), Seoul (SEOV), Saaremaa (SAAV), Dobrava (DOBV), Sin Nombre (SNV) or Andes (ANDV). For assay evaluation, serum IgG and IgM antibodies were analyzed using 184 laboratory-confirmed hantavirus-positive sera collected at six diagnostic centers from patients actively or previously infected with the following hantavirus serotypes: PUUV (Finland, n = 97); SEOV (China, n = 5); DOBV (Romania, n = 7); SNV (Canada, n = 23); ANDV (Argentina and Chile, n = 52). The control panel comprised 89 sera from healthy blood donors. According to the reference tests, all 184 patient samples were seropositive for hantavirus-specific IgG (n = 177; 96%) and/or IgM (n = 131; 72%), while all control samples were tested negative. In the multiparametric IFA applied in this study, 183 (99%) of the patient sera were IgG and 131 (71%) IgM positive (accordance with the reference tests: IgG, 96%; IgM, 93%). Overall IFA sensitivity for combined IgG and IgM analysis amounted to 100% for all serotypes, except for SNV (96%). Of the 89 control sera, 2 (2%) showed IgG reactivity against the HTNV substrate, but not against any other hantavirus. Due to the high cross-reactivity of hantaviral nucleocapsid proteins, endpoint titrations were conducted, allowing serotype determination in .90% of PUUV- and ANDV-infected patients. Thus, multiparametric IFA enables highly sensitive and specific serological diagnosis of hantavirus infections and can be used to differentiate PUUV and ANDV infection from infections with Murinae-borne hantaviruses (e.g. DOBV and SEOV). ; Fil: Lederer, Sabine. EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika; Alemania ; Fil: Lattwein, Erik. EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika; Alemania ; Fil: Hanke, Merle. EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika; Alemania ; Fil: Sonnenberg, Karen. EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika; Alemania ; Fil: Stoecker, Winfried. EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika; Alemania ; Fil: Lundkvist, Åke. Karolinska Huddinge Hospital. Karolinska Institutet; Suecia ; Fil: Vaheri, Antti. University of Helsinki; Finlandia ; Fil: Vapalahti, Olli. University of Helsinki; Finlandia ; Fil: Chan, Paul K. S. Chinese University of Hong Kong; República de China ; Fil: Feldmann, Heinz. Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health. Public Health Agency of Canada; Canadá ; Fil: Dick, Daryl. Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health. Public Health Agency of Canada; Canadá ; Fil: Schmidt Chanasit, Jonas. Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine; Alemania ; Fil: Padula, Paula Julieta. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina ; Fil: Vial, Pablo A. Universidad del Desarrollo; Chile ; Fil: Panculescu Gatej, Raluca. CANTACUZINO National Institute for Research and Development in Microbiology and Immunology; Rumania ; Fil: Ceianu, Cornelia. CANTACUZINO National Institute for Research and Development in Microbiology and Immunology; Rumania ; Fil: Heyman, Paul. Queen Astrid Military Hospital; Bélgica ; Fil: Avšič Županc, Tatjana. Institute of Microbiology and Immunology; Eslovenia ; Fil: Niedrig, Matthias. Robert Koch Institute; Alemania

Since September 2012, over 90 cases of respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus, now named Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), have been reported in the Middle East and Europe. To ascertain the capabilities and testing experience of national reference laboratories across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region to detect this virus, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe conducted a joint survey in November 2012 and a follow-up survey in June 2013. In 2013, 29 of 52 responding WHO European Region countries and 24 of 31 countries of the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) had laboratory capabilities to detect and confirm MERS-CoV cases, compared with 22 of 46 and 18 of 30 countries, respectively, in 2012. By June 2013, more than 2,300 patients had been tested in 23 countries in the WHO European Region with nine laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV cases. These data indicate that the Region has developed significant capability to detect this emerging virus in accordance with WHO and ECDC guidance. However, not all countries had developed capabilities, and the needs to do so should be addressed. This includes enhancing collaborations between countries to ensure diagnostic capabilities for surveillance of MERS-CoV infections across the European Region. ; peer-reviewed