title: [Severe acute respiratory syndrome. The public health laboratory in a global emergency].
abstract: By the end of year 2002 there was an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in Southeast Asia which soon spread to other continents. This new severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was produced by a novel coronavirus. Due to the severity of the situation and risk of introduction of this pathology in our country, the need to arrange specific laboratory diagnostic tests arose. Classic techniques, such as the electron microscopy and molecular biology test such as retrotranscription followed by the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were implemented. The araldit included cells infected with bovine coronavirus which allowed the viral particles to be visualized easily but it took more time in comparison with the negative staining of free particles from viral cultures. RT-PCR was able to detect RNA of isolated viruses from cases in Hong Kong and Germany.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Virosis Respiratorias, Departamento de Virología, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas, ANLIS Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina. ebaumeister@anlis.gov.ar
authors.forename: Elsa G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Baumeister
authors.forename: Adrián P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bozzini
authors.forename: Vilma L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Savy
mesh_terms: D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004630:Emergencies; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology