A rapid test for the detection of influenza A virus including pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009.

A new rapid diagnostic test for detection of influenza A virus was evaluated with four sets of experiments: first, a comparison with a commercial diagnostic kit against a panel of virus strains was conducted; second, the kit was tested against a collection of 40 strains of influenza A virus isolated from five different host species and 26 strains of other respiratory viruses used as controls; third, the kit was tested against specimens collected in the field obtained from human and chicken; and fourth, the kit was tested against the novel pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 clinical specimens obtained from admitted to hospital patients. The test kit displayed a sensitivity of 88% for both human specimens and avian specimens. The corresponding specificity was 99.3% for human specimens and 96.5% for avian specimens. This test kit may be useful for rapid diagnosis of influenza A virus.