diagnosis and surveillance of viral disease Flashcards
what are the three ways we can diagnosis viral infections/diseases
- direct detection of viral replication so measuring viral load which include viral antigen or viral genome
- host immune response to virus so antibody levels
- detection of characteristics so examination, history, blood tests etc
why should we diagnose an viral infection
- management
- prevention
- research
- surveillance
how can we detect antigen levels for an active virus infection
- lateral flow tests (immunoassays)- point of care
- elisa- laboratory
what is the most common antigen we test for in lateral flow tests for covid
- nucleocapsid
difference between laboratory testing and point of care testing
- lab testing (Elisa)= qualitative and quantitive, more sensitive and specific, fast for population
- point of care testing (lateral flow)= just qualitative, cheaper, no special training required, immediate results
how is qPCR/ real time PCR used in viral diagnosis and surveillance
- PCR used to amplify and quantify viral genetic load
- allows us to monitor genetic load of virus
- more sensitive than antigen testing
- however during infectivity period sensitivity of per and antigen testing is roughly the same
what is the steps of pcr
- denaturation
- annealing
- extension
reverse transcriptase may be used if virus is rna- so virus rna genome is converted into dna using reverse transcriptase before pcr and this is known as rt-pcr
- also for quantifying the viral genome use a fluroscence
what is next generation sequencing
- sequencing large amount of genetic material all at once
what is in depth in pathogen sequencing
- number of times a nucleotide is sequenced
what is metagenomics
- sequencing all dna in sample
- does no depend on primers
what is whole genome sequencing
- order of entire genetic sequence of an organism
what is an example of a quasi species
HIV
what is phylogenetics
- study of relationships between viruses or other organisms
what is serology
study of contents of serum so antigen/antibody
how can serology help us identify timing of infection
- IgM antibody suggests recent infection/active infection
- IgG antibody suggest not a recent infection
what testing do we tend not to do on acute infections
- antibody testing not useful for acute infections to guide early management
- mainly use testing which directly measures viral replication
what kind of infection do we tend to use IgG test for
- chronic (hepatitis e.g. b (anti hbc, hbs)
- latent (herpes)
what is window period
- time between exposure and infection
- time between exposure and viral replication
- time between exposure and antibody detection
how long does IgM last for and what is the significance of this
- lasts for 12 months
- can help us figure out timing of an chronic or latent infection
- e.g. if IgM antibodies detected suggests they have acquired the infection in the last 12 months
how can antibody testing be used to detect between pervious infection and vaccination
- so for hep b vaccination only the surface antigen is injected so only hep b surface antigen antibodies are produced, but if you have previously acquired the infection you would also proudce antibodies for hep b core antigens
- however for some virus infections antibody testing would not differentiate between infection and vaccination e.g. varicella zoster virus
antibody tests not usually useful for “ “ infection reactivation and disease management
latent
what testing is required for latent infections to detect reactivation and disease
- qpcr
- used to quantify viral load
- increase in viral load suggests reactivation
what is maternal infection and neonatal infection
- maternal infection is an infection that affects the mother but sometimes also affects the baby- in mums womb
- infection of baby
what is single flex testing and multiplex testing
- single plex describes single target qpcr
- multiplex testing describes the ability to test multiple targets during single qpcr- take one sample and test for multiple pathogens
what is screening
testing in asymptomatic population
- blood product screening, ante-natal screening e.g. screening for hiv in pregnant women