2004 Articles

Real-time polymerase chain reaction for detecting SARS coronavirus, Beijing, 2003

Zhai, Junhui; Briese, Thomas; Dai, Erhei; Wang, Xiaoyi; Pang, Xin; Du, Zongmin; Liu, Haihong; Wang, Jin; Wang, Hongxia; Guo, Zhaobiao; Chen, Zeliang; Jiang, Lingxiao; Zhou, Dongsheng; Han, Yanping; Jabado, Omar J.; Palacios, Gustavo F.; Lipkin, W. Ian; Yang, Ruifu

During the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, which targets the nucleocapsid gene at the 3′-end of the viral genome, was established to detect and identify the SARS-associated coronavirus. We describe the use of this assay to screen >700 clinical samples.