Diagnosis of Viral Infections

Abstract

The traditional epidemiological and academic reasons for diagnosis of viral infections have been expanded by rapid, often quantitative assays that can impact on therapeutic management and public health decisions. All methods used for viral isolation require living cells because viruses are obligate intracellular parasites. Historically, the systems used to isolate viruses of medical importance consisted of laboratory animals, embryonated eggs, and cultured cells. In the past two decades, safe and effective antiviral drugs have been developed for the treatment of many acute and chronic viral infections. In most diagnostic laboratories, electron microscopy (EM) for the diagnosis of viral infections has been supplanted by other methods, but EM remains an important and often rapid method for detecting viruses in clinical samples. Viral serologic assays contribute significantly to the indirect diagnosis of acute, recent, or chronic viral infections and are used widely for determining the immune status of a person or group of individuals with regard to a specific virus or to verify the immune response to vaccination. A variety of methods are available for serodiagnosis of viral infections. Failure to establish an accurate serologic diagnosis frequently results from the inability to submit an adequate pair of serum samples.