Illinois MERS Case Lab Confirmed By CDC Published Definition
Recombinomics.com
May 29, 2014
To conduct serology from MERS Co-V, we conducted three separate tests, ELISA, or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, IFA, or immunofluorescence assay, and a third more definitive test called the neutralizing antibody assay, which takes longer than the other two tests. Results from these tests are not black and white but require interpretation.
To maximize specificity, we defined MERS-CoV antibody positivity as subjects having correlated, positive laboratory results from the HKU5.2N screening ELISA as well as confirmed positive results by either the MERS-CoV immunofluorescence assay (IFA) or the MERS-CoV
microneutralization assay (MNT).
The above comments (in red) are from the CDC telebriefing claiming that the Illinois MERS case, who was antibody positive by two antibody test (ELISA and IFA), was really negative because of a subsequent microneutralization test. The three test are cited above.
However, the CDC had just published a paper on the detection of MERS antibodies in the ICU outbreak in Jordan in 2012 entitled “Hospital-associated outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus: A serologic, epidemiologic, and clinical description”. That paper used the same three test, and as noted above (in blue) a positive case was defined as a patient who was positive on the ELISA test and then confirmed by the IFA test or the miconeutralization assay (MNT).
The Rest…HERE
