SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 disease: a mini review on diagnostic methods

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Beatriz Araujo
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Oliveira, Lea Campos de, Sabino, Ester Cerdeira, Okay, Thelma Suely
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rimtsp/article/view/172888
• topic: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; 2019-nCoV; RT-PCR; Serological methods; Immunochromatography

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease initially reported in China and currently worldwide dispersed caused by a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or 2019-nCoV) affecting more than seven million people around the world causing more than 400 thousand deaths (on June 8th, 2020). The diagnosis of COVID-19 is based on the clinical and epidemiological history of the patient. However, the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is the viral detection through the amplification of nucleic acids. Although the quantitative Reverse-Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) has been described as the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19, there are several difficulties involving its use. Here we comment on RT-PCR and describe alternative tests developed for the diagnosis of COVID-19.