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New Molecular Assay Tests for Five Respiratory Viruses in Less than Three Hours

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 12 Jul 2022

Image: Thermo Fisher’s new PCR assay panel tests for five respiratory viruses in under three hours (Photo courtesy of Pexels)

The ongoing pandemic has stressed the importance of making effective diagnostics accessible, and by using existing PCR infrastructure, implemented to manage COVID-19, labs can expand disease state testing without increasing costs. Now, a new panel allows laboratories to test for eight common respiratory viruses with one patient sample. Adding the panel can help enable labs to add to their molecular testing menu for viral respiratory infections with ease.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA) has launched the Applied Biosystems TaqPath Respiratory Viral Select Panel, a CE-IVD-marked molecular assay panel for detection of five common viruses, including those that cause the common cold, bronchiolitis, croup, influenza-like illnesses, and pneumonia. The molecular assay panel provides results in approximately three hours, testing for Adenovirus, Human Metapneumovirus, Rhinovirus/Enterovirus, and Parainfluenza virus, using highly accurate PCR technology. RNase P and positive controls are included to offer sample-to-result reliability. The solution is scalable, which allows laboratories to run from one to 94 samples simultaneously depending on the needs of the population they’re servicing and can help to identify co-infections.

“As the world continues to grapple with living alongside COVID-19, it is important to know that there are a myriad of other respiratory viruses that can also cause serious illness,” said Dr. Manoj Gandhi, senior medical director of Genetic Testing Solutions at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Offering information on these other common respiratory viruses in a single test empowers labs to detect them quickly and efficiently so that the right treatment approach can be selected, which can help save patient’s lives.”

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