LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF PANDEMIC INFLUENZA A(H1N1) 2009 INFECTION

Fast and accurate diagnosis of influenza virus infections has become one of the mostimportant components in clinical management and containment of current pandemic. therefore, “real- time reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction” (rrt-pcr)” has become the reference method for diagnosis of pandemic a (h1n1)2009 due to its ability of generating fast, and accurate results, in less than 2.5 hours. virus isolation, direct immunofluorescence (dfa), in-direct immunofluorescence (ifa) and rapid tests are not recommended for diagnosis of pandemic a(h1n1) 2009 unless necessary. rapid tests have been considered for use by some diagnostic laboratories due to their ease of use and generation of fast results. however, scientific reports indicate the low sensitivity as one of the drawbacks of this method and do not recommend rapid tests for use in diagnosis of pandemic a (h1n1) 2009. rrt-pcr method developed by centers for disease control and prevention and authorized by world health organization (who) has been used at istanbul university, istanbul faculty of medicine, national influenza reference laboratory since the beginning of the pandemic.