Detection of orthopoxvirus DNA by real-time PCR and identification of variola virus DNA by melting analysis.

ABSTRACT: Although variola virus was eradicated by the World Health Organization vaccination program in the 1970s, the diagnosis of smallpox infection has attracted great interest in the context of a possible deliberate release of variola virus in bioterrorist attacks. Obviously, fast and reliable diagnostic tools are required to detect variola virus and to distinguish it from orthopoxviruses that have identical morphological characteristics, including vaccinia virus. The advent of real-time PCR for the clinical diagnosis of viral infections has facilitated the detection of minute amounts of viral nucleic acids in a fast, safe, and precise manner, including the option to quantify and to genotype the target reliably. In this study a complete set of four hybridization probe-based real-time PCR assays

SUBMITTER: Nitsche A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC356842 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature