Interim Guidance for Interpretation of Zika Virus Antibody Test Results.

Zika virus is a single-stranded RNA virus in the genus Flavivirus and is closely related to dengue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, and yellow fever viruses (1,2). Among flaviviruses, Zika and dengue virus share similar symptoms of infection, transmission cycles, and geographic distribution. Diagnostic testing for Zika virus infection can be accomplished using both molecular and serologic methods.

Characterization of Nipah virus from outbreaks in Bangladesh, 2008-2010.

Nipah virus (NiV) is a highly pathogenic paramyxovirus that causes fatal encephalitis in humans. The initial outbreak of NiV infection occurred in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998-1999; relatively small, sporadic outbreaks among humans have occurred in Bangladesh since 2001. We characterized the complete genomic sequences of identical NiV isolates from 2 patients in 2008 and partial genomic sequences of throat swab samples from 3 patients in 2010, all from Bangladesh.

The C, V and W proteins of Nipah virus inhibit minigenome replication.

Nipah virus (NiV) is a recently emergent, highly pathogenic, zoonotic paramyxovirus of the genus Henipavirus. Like the phosphoprotein (P) gene of other paramyxoviruses, the P gene of NiV is predicted to encode three additional proteins, C, V and W. When the C, V and W proteins of NiV were tested for their ability to inhibit expression of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene in plasmid-based, minigenome replication assays, each protein inhibited CAT expression in a dose-dependent manner.

Real-time reverse transcription-PCR assay for detection of mumps virus RNA in clinical specimens.

The mumps virus is a negative-strand RNA virus in the family Paramyxoviridae. Mumps infection results in an acute illness with symptoms including fever, headache, and myalgia, followed by swelling of the salivary glands. Complications of mumps can include meningitis, deafness, pancreatitis, orchitis, and first-trimester abortion.

Development of quantitative gene-specific real-time RT-PCR assays for the detection of measles virus in clinical specimens.

Real-time RT-PCR assays targeting sequences in the measles virus (MV) nucleoprotein (N), fusion (F), and hemagglutinin (H) genes were developed for the detection of MV RNA in clinical specimens. Four primer and probe sets each for the N, F, and H genes were evaluated and reaction conditions optimized. Using dilution series of synthetic RNAs, the limits of detection were determined to be approximately 10 copies for each target RNA/reaction.