Correction: Analytical Sensitivity Comparison between Singleplex Real-Time PCR and a Multiplex PCR Platform for Detecting Respiratory Viruses.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Laboratory-based respiratory virus surveillance pilot project on select cruise ships in Alaska, 2013-15.

Background: Influenza outbreaks can occur among passengers and crews during the Alaska summertime cruise season. Ill travellers represent a potential source for introduction of novel or antigenically drifted influenza virus strains to the United States. From May to September 2013-2015, the Alaska Division of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and two cruise lines implemented a laboratory-based public health surveillance project to detect influenza and other respiratory viruses among ill crew members and passengers on select cruise ships in Alaska.

Novel Orthopoxvirus Infection in an Alaska Resident.

Background.: Human infection by orthopoxviruses is being reported with increasing frequency, attributed in part to the cessation of smallpox vaccination and concomitant waning of population-level immunity. In July 2015, a female resident of interior Alaska presented to an urgent care clinic with a dermal lesion consistent with poxvirus infection.

Analytical Sensitivity Comparison between Singleplex Real-Time PCR and a Multiplex PCR Platform for Detecting Respiratory Viruses.

Multiplex PCR methods are attractive to clinical laboratories wanting to broaden their detection of respiratory viral pathogens in clinical specimens. However, multiplexed assays must be well optimized to retain or improve upon the analytic sensitivity of their singleplex counterparts. In this experiment, the lower limit of detection (LOD) of singleplex real-time PCR assays targeting respiratory viruses is compared to an equivalent panel on a multiplex PCR platform, the GenMark eSensor RVP.