TY - JOUR
T1 - The diagnostic methods in the COVID-19 pandemic, today and in the future
AU - Wu, So Yat
AU - Yau, Hoi Shan
AU - Yu, Man Yee
AU - Tsang, Hin Fung
AU - Chan, Lawrence Wing Chi
AU - Cho, William Chi Shing
AU - Shing Yu, Allen Chi
AU - Yuen Yim, Aldrin Kay
AU - Li, Marco J.W.
AU - Wong, Yin Kwan Evelyn
AU - Pei, Xiao Meng
AU - Cesar Wong, Sze Chuen
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Mr. Lawrence Ng Po Wah and Miss Amanda Chan Kit Ching for providing updating information on the clinical practice of the COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Introduction: The emergence of anovel coronavirus identified in patients with unknown cause of acute respiratory disease in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 has caused aglobal outbreak. The causative coronavirus was later named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named as Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). As of 10 August 2020, more than 19,718,030 confirmed cases and 728,013 deaths have been reported. COVID-19 is spread via respiratory droplets which are inhaled into the lungs. Areas covered: In this article, we summarized the knowledge about the causative pathogen of COVID-19 and various diagnostic methods in this pandemic for better understanding of the limitations and the nuances of virus testing for COVID-19. Expert opinion: In this pandemic, rapid and accurate identification of COVID-19 patients are critical to break the chain of infection in the community. RT-PCR provides a rapid and reliable identification of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the future, molecular diagnostics will still be the gold standard and next-generation sequencing can help us to understand more on the pathogenesis and detect novel mutations. It is believed that more sophisticated detection methods will be introduced to detect SARS-CoV-2 as earliest as possible.
AB - Introduction: The emergence of anovel coronavirus identified in patients with unknown cause of acute respiratory disease in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 has caused aglobal outbreak. The causative coronavirus was later named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named as Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). As of 10 August 2020, more than 19,718,030 confirmed cases and 728,013 deaths have been reported. COVID-19 is spread via respiratory droplets which are inhaled into the lungs. Areas covered: In this article, we summarized the knowledge about the causative pathogen of COVID-19 and various diagnostic methods in this pandemic for better understanding of the limitations and the nuances of virus testing for COVID-19. Expert opinion: In this pandemic, rapid and accurate identification of COVID-19 patients are critical to break the chain of infection in the community. RT-PCR provides a rapid and reliable identification of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the future, molecular diagnostics will still be the gold standard and next-generation sequencing can help us to understand more on the pathogenesis and detect novel mutations. It is believed that more sophisticated detection methods will be introduced to detect SARS-CoV-2 as earliest as possible.
KW - coronavirus Disease-2019
KW - COVID-19
KW - COVID-19 diagnosis
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091027188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14737159.2020.1816171
DO - 10.1080/14737159.2020.1816171
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32845192
AN - SCOPUS:85091027188
SN - 1473-7159
VL - 20
SP - 985
EP - 993
JO - Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics
JF - Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics
IS - 9
ER -