Diagnostic assays for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a highly contagious viral tick-borne disease with case-fatality rates as high as 50%. We describe a collaborative evaluation of the characteristics, performance, and on-site applicability of serologic and molecular assays for diagnosis of CCHF. We evaluated ELISA, immunofluorescence, quantitative reverse transcription PCR, and low-density macroarray assays for detection of CCHF virus using precharacterized archived patient serum samples. Compared with results of local, in-house methods, test sensitivities were 87.8%-93.9% for IgM serology, 80.4%-86.1% for IgG serology, and 79.6%-83.3% for genome detection. Specificity was excellent for all assays; molecular test results were influenced by patient country of origin. Our findings demonstrate that well-characterized, reliable tools are available for CCHF diagnosis and surveillance. The on-site use of such assays by health laboratories would greatly diminish the time, costs, and risks posed by the handling, packaging, and shipping of highly infectious biologic material.

Citation

Jessica Vanhomwegen, Maria João Alves, Tatjana Avšič Zupanc, Silvia Bino, Sadegh Chinikar, Helen Karlberg, Gülay Korukluoğlu, Miša Korva, Masoud Mardani, Ali Mirazimi, Mehrdad Mousavi, Anna Papa, Ana Saksida, Batool Sharifi-Mood, Persofoni Sidira, Katerina Tsergouli, Roman Wölfel, Hervé Zeller, Philippe Dubois. Diagnostic assays for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Emerging infectious diseases. 2012 Dec;18(12):1958-65

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PMID: 23171700

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