title: [Laboratory diagnosis of pandemic influenza at the Department of Medical Microbiology of the Regional Authority of Public Health based in Banská Bystrica in the season 2009-2010].
abstract: The Department of Medical Microbiology of the Regional Authority of Public Health (RAPH) in Banská Bystrica serves as a catchment laboratory of virology for the Central Slovakia Region, and in the influenza season 2009/10, it also served as such for the East Slovakia Region.
  
  
  METHODS
  Specimens (nasopharyngeal swabs and post-mortem specimens) from patients with suspected influenza were obtained from both sentinel and non-sentinel physicians. The specimens were analyzed by a rapid test, followed by real-time PCR (RT-PCR) for influenza A or B diagnosis. RT-PCR subtyping for pandemic influenza A/H1N1 was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From May 2009 to June 2010, 2497 specimens were analyzed for the presence of influenza A and B viruses and in particular for the presence of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus. As many as 537 of 589 influenza A-positive specimens, i.e. 21.5% of all specimens analyzed and 91.2% of influenza A-positive specimens, were subtyped as pandemic influenza A/H1N1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the influenza season 2009/10, the new pandemic influenza A/H1N1 clearly predominated in Central and Eastern Slovakia. PCR tests have played a key role in diagnosing patients with suspected pandemic influenza in the laboratory participating in the surveillance of influenza and influenza-like illness in the Slovak Republic.
authors.affiliation: Regionálny úrad verejného zdravotníctva so sídlom v Banskej Bystrici, Odbor lekárskej mikrobiológie. renata.kissova@vzbb.sk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kissová
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mad'arová
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klement
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D058873:Pandemics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018154:Slovakia / Q000453:epidemiology