Appendix F8 - Guidelines for Laboratory Diagnosis of SARS-CoV Infection

Supplement F: Laboratory Guidance

Public Health Guidance for Community-Level Preparedness and Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Version 2/3

Laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV infection is based on:

• Detection of any of the following by a validated test, with confirmation in a reference laboratory:
  • Serum antibodies to SARS-CoV in a single serum specimen, or
  • A four-fold or greater increase in SARS-CoV antibody titer between acute- and convalescent-phase serum specimens tested in parallel, or
  • Negative SARS-CoV antibody test result on acute-phase serum and positive SARS-CoV antibody test result on convalescent-phase serum tested in parallel; or
• Isolation in cell culture of SARS-CoV from a clinical specimen, with confirmation using a test validated by CDC; or
• Detection of SARS-CoV RNA by RT-PCR validated by CDC, with confirmation in a reference laboratory, from:
  • Two clinical specimens from different sources, or
  • Two clinical specimens collected from the same source on two different days
    

Guidelines for the collection of specimens from potential cases of SARS are provided in Appendix F4.

 

Top of Page