FEATURES OF LABORATORY DIAGNOSTIC OF COVID-19 DISEASE

Abstract

Background. At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection occurred in the People›s Republic of China with an epicenter in Wuhan. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization assigned the infection its official name - COVID-19 (“Coronavirus disease 2019”), and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses on February 11, 2020 assigned the official name to the causative agent - SARS-CoV-2. The aim of the work was the аnalysis of publications on the specifics of laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 disease with the goal of effective medical and psychological support during dynamic observation in young people. The study is relevant due to the fact that the disease quickly spread around the planet with the active drift of the pathogen into the territory of the Russian Federation. Materials and methods. When conducting the research, scientific publications in open press materials were used, selected in accordance with the purpose of the study, which are contained in domestic and foreign databases. Results. According to the current regulatory documents, the diagnosis of the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is established on the basis of a clinical examination, data from an epidemiological history and laboratory results. Based on the results of the clinical examination, the issue of the type of medical care and the amount of additional examination are being resolved. It is known that a large number of affected individuals can remain asymptomatic (according to various sources, from 17.9 to 78%), despite the fact that there is insufficient reliable data on the infectivity of asymptomatic people and how asymptomatic infection leads to transmission of the virus. A confirmed case of COVID-19 is considered to be a case with laboratory confirmation by any of the methods using diagnostic drugs and test systems registered in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Discussion. The use of such laboratory methods (real-time RT-PCR) is absolutely necessary because it improves the accuracy of diagnosis of the underlying disease and improves the quality of the medical and psychological support of the patient since cases of the apparently asymptomatic COVID-19 course have been identified. Conclusion. The outcomes of this pandemic are not yet clear and cause concern both for a healthy generation that can be infected, and for sick people who have various options for the pathological process from asymptomatic to severe with fatal outcomes. It is believed that one of the main reasons for this rapid development of the pandemic was the lack of diagnostic test systems for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 (bibliography: 47 refs).